*/     'h.     yfi      if    '-U 


THE  PORTAGE  PATH 

BY 

P.    P.  CHERRY 


PUBLISHED  BY 

THE  WESTERN  RESERVE  COMPANY 

AKRON,  OHIO 

1911 


Copyright,  1911, 

by 

P.  P.  Cherry 


Caslon  Press,  Printers 
Wooster,  Ohio 


TO 
CAPTAIN  T.   D.   WOLBACH 

A  VETERAN   OF  THE  OLD   GUARD,    SOLDIER, 

CITIZEN,  PATRIOT,   AND  MY  LIFE- LONG 

FRIEND,   THIS  LITTLE  VOLUME    IS 

RESPECTFULLY   DEDICATED. 


2    }    »    r  *•    ?  M  9  /<*  ff  fl-  /J  fy  /S"  ^6  ^>^ 


PORTAGE  PATH 


Contents 

Primitive  Cuyahoga  Valley             -             -             -  -         iv 

Foreword           ------  i 

An  Appeal               ------  5 

Captain  Pipe  of  Portage  Path — Poem             -             -  12 

Hopocan — Captain  Pipe                 -              -             -  ■         ^3 

Portage  Path  in  Early  Maps                 -             -             .  32 

Original  Surveyors  of  Portage  Path          -             -  -          34 

Western  Boundary  of  the  United  States         -             -  39 

Center  of  Indian  Communication             -             -  -           48 

An  Historic  Path:  Movement  to  Mark  it       -             -  77 

Statue  Dedicated               -             -             -             .  .           81 

The  Story  of  Mar    Campbell             .             -             .  85 

Building  of  Perry's  Vessels          -             -             -  -            91 

An  Early  River  Port              -             .             .             -  g^ 

Part  of  United  States.  1805          -             -             -  -            98 


Illustrations 

My  Chum             .             -             .             -  Frontispiece 

Map                 ..-.-.  ii 

Facing  Page 

Captain  Pipe  Warning  Scout     -             -             -  -              13 

Path  Crossing  Indian  Clearing         -             -  -             -       33 

Upper  Headquarters  of  Original  Surveyors     -  -             37 

Quiet  Stretch  on  the  Cuyahoga        -             -  -             -      41 

Map — Center  of  Indian  Communication           -  -               48 

Pictured  Tree            -             -             -             -  -             "57 

Statue  to  John  Brown          -             -             -  -             ■         77 

Statue  to  Mark  Path      -             -             -             -  -              81 

Little  Mary  Campbell           -             -             -  -             -       85 

Mary  Campbell's  First  Ohio  Home     -             -  -               89 

Beginning  of  Portage  Path               -             -  -             -       93 

Oogontz              -----  -           loi 


The  Primitive  Cuyahoga  Valley 


There  are  very  many  vallies.  vallies  of  renown. 

But  the  Cuyahoga  valley  was  fairer  than  these. 

And  greener  its  grasses  and  taller  its  trees 

'Ere  the  sound  of  the  ax  in  the  forest  had  rung, 

Or  the  mower  his  scythe  in  the  meadows  had  swung. 

In  their  sheltered  repose  looking  out  from  the  wood, 

The  bark-builded  wigwams  of  the  Otta was  stood: 

There  glided  the  corn  dance,  the  council-fire  shone. 

And  against  the  red  war-post  the  hatchet  was  thrown. 

There  the  old  smoked  in  silence  their  pipe,   and  the  young 

To  the  pike  and  the  white  perch  their  baited  lines  flung! 

There  the  boy  shaped  his  arrows,  and  there  the  shy  maid 

Wove  her  many-hued  baskets  and  bright  wampum  braid. 

"O  stream  of  Hopocan!  if  answer  of  thine 

Could  raise  from  thy  waters  to  question  of  mine, 

Methinks  through  the  din  of  thy  thronged  banks  a  moan 

Of  sorrow  would  swell  for  the  days  that  are  gone. 

Not  for  thee,  dull  jar  of  the  loom  and  the  wheel. 

The  gliding  of  shuttles,  the  ringing  of  steel: 

But  that  old  voice  of  water,  of  bird  and  of  breeze. 

The  dip  of  the  wild  fowl,  the  rustling  of  trees. 

Whittier. 


MV    c;nLM' 


FOREWORD 


Many  generations  ago  the  southern  shore  of 
Lake  Erie  was  settled  and  inhabited  for  centuries  by 
a  strange  and  mysterious  race  of  whom  history  is 
dumb  and  speaketh  not.  This  almost  unknown  race 
Avas  the  Eries,  or  the  Cat  Nation.  Early  French 
map-makers  called  Lake  Erie  the  "Lac  La  Chat." 

Then,  came  a  bark  across  the  great  sea,  bear- 
ing the  seeds  of  life  and  death.  Life,  for  a  race 
of  people  chosen  b}^  God  to  carry  religious  and 
political  equality  to  all  mankind — a  race  destined 
to  spread  abroad  those  principles  of  knowledge 
and  humanity  so  little  known  in  that  day  to  races 
of  yet  unknown  and  unborn  men.  The  hope 
of  the  world,  the  salvation  of  the  poor  and  op- 
pressed of  every  land  and  clime,  religious  tolerance 
and  broken  shackles,  were  to  go  with  the  flag  yet 
unconceived,  and  with  a  nation  of  freemen  }'et  un- 
born. To-day  God's  plan  has  budded  and  flow- 
ered, and  borne  fruitage.  On  that  nation  to-day, 
produced  from  the  loins  of  these  men,  the  sun  of 
God  never  sets,  and  wherever  the  flag  of  that  na- 
tion goes,  the  glorious  stars  and  stripes,  there  goes 
the  hope  of  peace,  religious  tolerance,  political 
equality,  the  inherent  right  of  all  men  to  life,  and 
propert}',  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness. 


Foreword 

On  the  other  hand,  that  bark,  breasting  the 
stormy  waves  of  the  trackless  and  uncharted  Atlan- 
tic, brought  the  seeds  of  death  to  a  strange  and 
little  known  people — the  children  of  nature — the 
natives  of  a  new  world,  and  yet,  the  eldest  born; 
for  long  before  Europe  raised  its  head  above  the 
wilderness  of  waters,  America  presented  an  un- 
broken line  of  hill  and  plain  and  mountain  from 
the  threatening  waters  of  the  Atlantic  to  those  of 
the  quiet  Pacific. 

It  was  faith  that  made  these  wanderers  from 
the  oppressive  shores  of  Europe  Men.  It  was 
faith  that  enabled  Parson  Robinson,  standing  on 
the  shores  of  the  old  world,  to  say  to  that  little 
band  of  pilgrims  strong  in  heart:  "There  will 
never  be  an  age  when  there  will  not  be  a  better  one 
to  come.  Whatever  happens  to  this  one  or  that, 
it  matters  not;  it  is  the  destinj'  of  these  people  to 
sail.  God's  time  has  come.  The  sea  may  rage. 
The  savages  of  an  unknown  land  may  uplift  their 
weapons  of  war,  but  the  time  has  come  for  the 
truth  to  make  a  new  nation  of  free  men,  who  ma5' 
own  their  own  souls  and  found  a  new  nation  in 
faith." 

Brave  words!  words  of  prophecy  and  of  a  sub- 
lime trust.  The  finger  of  destiny  was  already 
writing  of  the  coming  Western  Reserve. 

The  Pilgrim  Fathers  sailed,  firm  in  the  faith 
that  they  were  fulfilling  the  will  of  God.  Then 
came  that  long,  cold  and  terrible  winter  in  an  un- 


Foreword 

known  land,  upon  an  inhospitable  shore,  surrounded 
by  savages  who  were  an  enemy  to  their  race.  Be- 
fore the  grass  grew  again,  or  the  balm}'  south 
winds  blew,  more  than  one-half  of  their  number 
were  either  dead  or  dying;  "but  in  those  terrible 
times  the  faith  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  never  failed 
or  faltered,  and  the  star  of  destin}'  hung  in  the 
clouds  over  those  eight  or  more  rude  houses  by  the 
sea." 

It  will  be  well  for  the  rising  generation  to 
remember  Elder  Brewster's  words  of  faith  during 
those  da3'S  of  tribulation  and  trial,  for  the}'-  con- 
tain for  us  the  true  word  of  prophecy,  the  hand- 
writing of  God  upon  the  walls  of  time;  the  way  of 
the  coming  Western  Reserve  was  being  prepared. 

"Blessed  will  it  be  for  us,"  said  this  old  hero 
of  faith,  "blessed  for  this  land,  for  this  vast  con- 
tinent! Na}',  from  generation  to  generation  will  the 
blessing  descend.  Generations  to  come  will  look 
back  to  this  hour  and  these  scenes  of  agonizing 
trial,  this  day  of  small  things  and  say:  'Here  was 
our  beginning  as  a  people.  These  were  our 
fathers.  Through  their  trials  we  inherit  our  bless- 
ings. Their  faith  is  our  faith;  their  hope  our 
hope;  their  God  our  God.'  " 

Slowly  but  surely  God's  chosen  people  pushed 
back  those  children  of  nature  towards  the  glowing 
west,  clothed  with  its  everlasting  garb  of  primeval 
forest.  First  were  the  shores  of  the  Great  Salt 
Sea  depopulated,   then    the  banks  of  those    great 


Foreword 

fresh  water  streams,  the  Hudson,  the  Mohawk,  the 
St.  Lawrence,  the  Delaware,  the  Susquehanna. 
Slowly  and  sadly  they  abandoned  the  hunting 
grounds  of  their  tribes,  the  council  chambers  of 
their  nations  and  the  graves  of  their  sires.  Pressed 
into  this  narrow  space,  they  very  soon  came  into 
contact  with  the  fierce  lords  of  the  farther  west, 
the  unconquerable  "home  defenders,"  the  terrible 
warriors  of  the  Cat  tribe.  The  conflict  was  long 
and  bloody,  a  war  for  existence,  a  war  of  extermin- 
ation, cruel,  pitiless,  hopeless.  No  quarter  was 
asked  or  received,  and  captured  warriors  went  to 
the  stake  singing  songs  of  defiance  and  chanting 
their  deeds  of  forest  valor. 

Forced  from  the  beloved  shores  of  the  Cat  lake 
the  tribe  slowly  retreated  down  the  Cuyahoga  and 
Rocky  valleys,  stubbornly  contesting  every  foot  of 
ground  and  making  their  last  stand  in  the  valleys 
of  the  Killbuck,  the  Chippewa,  and  the  Mohican. 

This  Indian  war  ended  sometime  between 
1 66 1  and  1700;  no  man  can  sa^'  just  when. 

The  way  was  being  prepared  for  the  "coming 
man,"  and  with  the  expulsion  of  the  Eries  came  a 
noted  period  in  the  annals  of  the  aborigines  of  the 
country.  From  this  time  dated  all  aboriginal  his- 
tory west  of  the  AUeghanies;  with  it  came  the  im- 
migration of  eastern  tribes,  Wyandots  or  Hurons, 
Delawares,  Shawnees,  Miamis,  Mingoes,  Ottawas 
and  Chippewas.  With  their  coming  the  Cuyahoga, 
the  Tuscarawas,  and  the  Portage  Path,  became  the 


Foreword 

boundar)'  between  nations,  and  a  great  neutral 
highway  between  the  gulf  on  the  south,  and  the 
great  lakes  on  the  north.  The  country  west  of  Por- 
tage Path  was  owned  b}'  the  western  Indians  while 
that  to  the  east  was  the  countr}'  of  the  great  Six 
Nations. 

The  Portage  Path  was  the  best,  the  shortest, 
the  driest,  the  best  known  between  the  great  lakes 
and  the  rivers  running  southwardly  into  the  gulf. 
Its  importance  in  those  earl}'  days  must  not  be 
overlooked.  For  centuries  it  was  the  national 
boundarj'  and  neutral  highway  for  all  Indian  races. 
Over  it  came  red  men  carr3ang  their  birch-bark 
canoes  from  the  rivers  southwardly  to  the  Crook- 
ed River"  flowing  to  the  north,  long  before  Christ- 
opher Columbus  had  even  planted  the  Spanish  flag 
on  the  shores  of  the  unknown  world.  Along  this 
path  sped  the  Indian  runner  on  his  mission  of 
peace  or  war,  during  the  dark  ages  preceding  the 
advent  of  the  white  man,  and  for  some  three  hun- 
dred years  thereafter.  It  was  not  onl}'  an  Indian 
trail,  but  it  v/as  the  center  and  ke3'-note  of  all  In- 
dian communication  in  the  entire  northwest. 

He  who  runs  may  read!  and  to  him  who  delves 
deep  down  into  the  thoughts  of  an  everlasting  God 
there  comes  a  glorious  realization  of  the  magnitude 
of  a  plan  for  the  regeneration  of  mankind  that  takes 
in  a  period  of  time  reaching  as  far  back  as  the  day 
"when  the  stars  sang  together  and  the  sea  grew 
quiet  and  still." 


An  Appeal 

To  THE  Honor  and  Pride  of  the  People  of 
Northern  Ohio, 


In  briefly  reviewing  the  past,  and  appealing  to 
the  public  spirit  of  the  people  of  Northern  Ohio,  I 
have  no  personal  axes  to  grind,  but  simply  would 
champion  a  worthy  and  imperative  cause,  because 
up  to  this  time  no  one  else  has  seen  fit  to  do  so. 

The  red  men  of  the  Ohio  valley  were  migrato- 
r}'  in  their  character  and  in  their  tastes. 

The  Indians  of  the  Cuyahoga  were  here  to- 
day; to-morrow  they  perchance  would  be  found 
down  the  Tuscarawas;  in  a  week,  amongst  the  In- 
dian towns  of  the  Muskingum,  or  the  rapids  of 
Maumee,  the  Miami  of  the  lakes;  and  later,  per- 
haps, in  the  vicinity  of  Sandusky  or  Detroit. 

The  Cuyahoga  and  Portage  Path  villages  fur- 
nished secure  fastnesses,  far  from  the  trails  of 
transitory  and  adventurous  whites,  who  held  to 
the  well-beaten  trails  of  better  known  parts  of  the 
Indian  countr}'. 

Here  were  their  homes,  their  sacred  hearth- 
stones, their  families,  their  corn-fields,  and  the 
graves  of  their  sires. 

6 


An  Appeal 

From  here  down  the  "Great  Centrrd  Indian 
Trail,"  passing  the  "falls  of  Hopocan,"  crossing 
the  upper  Cu3-ahoga  waters  at  "Standing  Stone", 
whose  lone  pine  was  a  beacon  b}^  day,  on  up  the 
valle}'  of  "Break-neck  Creek,"  crossing  the 
"Summit"  not  far  from  Ravenna,  thence  on 
through  the  present  townships  of  Edinburg, 
Palmyra  and  Milton  to  the  "Salt  Springs"  of  the 
Mahoning,  and  thence,  down  that  river  either  by 
canoe  or  land;  to  "the  forks  of  the  trail",  if  by  the 
latter;  or  if  b}'  canoe,  to  "the  forks  of  the 
Beaver."  From  there  thej'  made  their  sudden 
foray  to  isolated  Penns3'lvania  hamlets,  or  to 
lonely,  unguarded  cabin  homes  on  the  extreme 
border  land.  Then — the  midnight  attack,  the 
burning  homes,  the  shrieks  of  unprotected 
womanhood  and  that  of  helpless  infanc3\  The 
lust  of  blood  glutted,  and  loaded  with  plunder, 
they  made  their  way  back  to  their  forest  retreat  in 
two  days,  or  perhaps,  if  pursued,  in  a  day  and 
night  of  travel. 

Within  a  radius  of  thirt}'  miles  were  clustered 
lOO  fresh  water  lakes  var^nng  in  size  from  the  mere 
pond  to  sheets  of  water  stretching  miles  in  extent, 
and  filled  with  fish  of  savory  qualities.  These 
lakes  were  frequented  b}^  wild  aquatic  fowl  of 
many  varieties.  These  shores,  these  forests, 
abounded  with  a  greater  variety  of  wild  game  and 
in  larger  numbers  than  were  to  be  found  in  any  other 
section  of  the  Ohio  valley.       In  the  beginning  of 


An  Appeal 

the  i8th  century  this  was  the  home  of  elks,  and 
even  bison  were  found.  The  Indians  of  the  far- 
away Susquehanna  had  their  hunting  grounds  here 
which  they  called  "the  Diohoga",  the  Delaware 
word  for  our  small  but  famous  river.  Even  as  late 
as  1838,  five  hundred  deer  were  the  result  of  one 
day's  circular  hunt  within  twenty  miles  of  Akron, 
or  of  the  Cleveland  of  to-da3^  Sounds  like  ro- 
mance, does  it  not?  And  yet,  until  a  few  years 
ago,  the  story  could  have  been  verified  by  living 
witnesses;  today,  there  are  but  few  living  to 
whom  it  was  related  by  lips  now  dead. 

European  maps  of  the  17th  and  i8th  century, 
before  Lake  Erie  and  the  Ohio  River  were  known 
upon  them,  showed  the  "Cayahogo"  and  its 
famous  "carrying  place"  the  Portage  Path,  thick- 
ly peopled  with  Indian  villages,  while  on  the  pre- 
sent site  of  Akron  clustered  the  Indian  "Cayahogo 
Town." 

But  beyond  this,  even  back  to  the  first  know- 
ledge which  the  Europeans  had  of  America,  and 
their  faint,  crude  idea  of  the  Great  Lakes,  we  find  a 
fair  knowledge  of  the  "portage  of  the  Cuyahoga," 
which  at  that  time  was  regarded  as  a  commercial 
and  strategic  point  of  great  value,  that  to  the  aver- 
age citizen  of  to-day  seems  strangely  exaggerated. 

Thomas  Jefferson  and  George  Washington  at 
one  time  were  deeply  interested  in  its  importance 
and  in  the  possibility  of  making  a  canal  between 
the  north  line  of  Portage  Path  and  Summit  Lake, 


An  Appeal 

thus  forming  of  it  a  national  highway  for  ships. 

When  a  young  man,  George  Washington  and 
his  inseparable  forest  companion,  Christopher  Gist, 
had  penetrated  the  primeval  forest  to  within  ten 
miles  of  Lake  Erie;  may  even  have  reached  its 
shore,  and  ma^'  possibly  have  visited  Portage  Path, 
as  his  knowledge  of  it  was  accurate. 

"Ohio's  Magna  Charta",  the  Ordinance  of 
1787,  secures  to  the  people  of  the  United  States 
the  right  of  highway  on  the  Tuscarawas,  Cuj^ahoga 
and  Portage  Path,  and  says  they  shall  be  "FOR- 
EVER FREE." 

But  going  back  of  this — even  to  the  first  cry 
of  man — we  find  the  Cuyahoga  valley  one  vast 
geological  lake  reaching  to  almost  the  northern 
limits  of  Akron.  Later  than  this,  we  find  that  the 
waters  of  the  Cuj'ahoga  which  had  flowed  into  the 
gulf,  had  through  some  convulsion  of  nature,  near 
the  village  oi  that  name,  become  dammed,  and 
then  had  cut  a  new  channel,  emptying  itself  into 
the  great  lake  of  the  north:  not  only  this,  but  it 
had  cut  a  new  channel  through  a  high  bluff  and 
entered  Lake  Erie  a  mile  from  its  former  mouth. 

To  the  shame  of  the  people  of  northern  Ohio 
be  it  said,  that  they  have  allowed  their  pre-historic 
highway  of  Indian  nations  long  since  gathered  to 
their  fathers,  an  ancient  road-way,  pregnant  with 
the  care  of  an  early  government, of  two  early  presi- 
dents of  the  United  States,  who  gave  force  and 
character  to  the  liberty  loving   of  every  nation,  to 


An  Appeal 

become  obscured:  nay,  almost  lost,  through  the 
avarice  of  man  and  the  earthy  accumulations  of 
over  a  centur^^'s  neglect. 

To  their  shame  be  it  said  that  they  have  al- 
lowed the  corner  stones  set  by  Moses  Cleveland 
marking  the  boundary  line  of  the  great  nation  of 
the  United  States  to  become  lost — buried  over  four 
feet  deep  by  one  hundred  and  fifteen  3'ears  accum- 
alation  of  debris. 

Men  of  the  Nation  and  the  State!  Citizens  of 
northern  Ohio  and  of  Summit  County!  residents 
of  the  metropolis  of  Ohio,  and  of  Akron!  you  owe 
it  to  the  people  of  Ohio,  and  to  the  whole  nation, 
to  see  that  these  points  be  rescued  from  the  un- 
deserved oblivion  under  which  they  unjustly  lie. 

The  monumental  stones  set  by  Cleveland,  and 
Pease,  and  Warren,  and  Holle^',  have  become 
covered  and  hidden  through  a  nation's  neglect,  a 
slate's  indifference  and  the  Rip  Van  Winkleism  of 
the  residents  of  this  section,  until  they  can  hardly 
be  found  by   digging. 

Will  this  criminal  neglect  continue?  Or,  will 
the  public  spirited  citizens  of  northern  Ohio,  of  ihe 
old  Western  Reserve,  of  Cleveland,  the  metropolis 
of  the  great  State  of  Ohio,  of  Akron,  "the  Tip 
Top  City" — "the  City  of  Opportunity,''  see  that 
these  historical  points  of  exceptional  national  in- 
terest, be  rescued  from  the  unjust  oblivion  under 
which  they  have  lain  during  a  centur3^'s  growth 
and  wealth. 

10 


An  Appeal 

If  the  spirit  of  local  interest  and  of  national 
pride  3'et  beats  in  your  veins  as  it  did  when  the 
British  were  invading  your  shores  in  1812,  or, 
when  national  honor  and  the  life  of  the  Republic 
were  assailed  in  "61",  then  indeed,  you  will  not 
rest  until  these  great  historical  and  economic 
points  in  a  great  Nation's  past  are  again  restored, 
and  to  which  we  can  point  with  just  pride  as  the 
relics  of  a  time  that  tried  men's  souls. 

Other  states,  other  counties,  other  towns, 
have  been  for  years  busil}^  engaged  in  erecting 
monuments  to  commemorate  points  of  historical, 
state  and  national  interest.  Wh}'^  should  the 
busiest   cit}-  in  Ohio  be  behind  in  this  work? 

The  Portage  Path  can  beat  this  time  re-sur- 
vej'ed  and  life-size  monuments  of  native  life  set  at 
the  corners  and  other  important  places  which, 
at  a  ver\'  small  cost,  will  be  a  jo}^  and  pride  to  our 
citizens. 

We  owe  it  to  ourselves,  our  children,  to  pos- 
terity, to  cit}'  pride,  count_y  renown,  state  glory 
and  national  approbation  to  see  that  this  is  done 
— and  done  soon. 


II 


Captain  Pipe  of  Portage  Path 


"Here  the  mighty  Hopocan, 

Held  his  long  unquestioned  sway, 

From  the  green  hills  far  away, 

To  the  Great  Lake's  sounding  shore; 

Chief  of  chiefs,  his  regal  word 

All  the  river  Sachems  heard; 

At  his  call  the  \var-dance  stirred. 

Or  was  still  once  more." 
"There  were  spoils  of  chase  and  war; 
Jaws  of  wolf  and  black  bear's  paw. 
Panther's  skin  and  eagle's  claw, 
Lay  beside  his  axe  and  bow; 
And  adown  the  roof-pole  hung, 
Loosely  on  a  snake-skin  strung. 
In  the  smoke  his  scalp-locks  swung 

Grimh'^  to  and  fro.'' 
"Nightly  down  the  river  going, 
Swifter  was  the  hunter's  rowing. 
When  he  saw  that  lodge-fire  glowing 
O'er  the  waters  still  and  red; 
And  the  squaw's  dark  eye  burned  brighter. 
And  she  drew  her  blanket  tighter, 
As  with  swifter  steps  and  lighter 
From  that  door  she  fled." 

— Whittier 


12 


(   Mlitain  Pipe  Wjiriiinii 'lie  S<-(>ut  to  Leave  the 
K<-*l   Mill's  T.mikI 


Hopocan — Captain  Pipe  the  King  of 
Portage  Path 


Hopocan,  Hobacon,  Copacon,  Wobocan,  as  it 
has  been  variously  spelled,  or  as  he  was  better 
known,  Captain  Pipe,  was  a  man  of  m3'stery. 
There  is  no  direct  evidence  that  he  was  ever  born, 
and  none  that  he  ever  died. 

This  strange,  mysterious,  successful  and  vin- 
dictive historical  figure  appeared  upon  the  stage 
and  then — disappeared.  As  near  as  can  be  learned 
he  was  born  somewhere  on  the  Susquehanna,  when 
the  eighteenth  century  was  quite  young.  No 
man  knows  when,  or  where.  He  belonged  to  the 
Wolf  clan  of  the  Lcnni — Lenape  or  the  Delazoarc. 
His  earl}^  life  as  well  as  his  latter  end  is  buried 
in  obscurit}\  We  first  hear  of  him  in  1759,  then 
a  noted  chief,  and  a  man  of  uncertain  age. 
What  had  been  his  environments?  We  have  no 
knowledge.  When  he  removed  to  the  Ohio  coun- 
try is  also  not  certain.  The  most  that  is  known 
is,  that  in  1764,  he  was  a  well  known  and  noted 
chieftain  on  the  Cuyahoga,  Tuscarawas  and  the 
Muskingum,  as  well  as  in  the  Delaware  villages  of 
Pennsylvania.      It  was  upon  the  promise  of  his  re- 

13 


Captain  Pipe 

lease  that  the  prisoners  in  the  Indian  countrj^  were 
so  quickly  brought  to  Bouquet;  Capt,  Pipe,  Capt. 
John,  and  one  other,  being  held  by  him  as  hostages 
at  Fort  Pitt. 

His  village  was  located  at  the  end  of  Portage 
Path  on  the  Tuscarawas  river,  between  two 
beautiful  fresh  water  lakes.  Geographically,  he 
was  located  in  Coventr}^  township,  Summit 
county.  On  account  of  his  always  signing  his 
name  as  "King  of  New  Portage,"  the  township 
has  alwaj's  been  known  as  "the  State  of  Coven- 
tr}'."  The  location  of  his  village  was  at  an  im- 
portant point  in  the  early  history  of  the  countr}'. 
Both  Washington  and  Jefferson  regarded  it  as 
a  place  of  great  commercial  value,  and  in  the  ordi- 
nance of  1787  it  was  rated  as  "a  carrying  place" 
and  declared  to  be  a  national  highway  and  for- 
ever free.  It  was  the  real  center  of  the  vast  laby- 
rinth of  that  network  of  Indian  paths  traversing 
the  western  territory  in  every  direction. 

The  next  we  hear  from  him  is  some  thirty' 
miles  below  his  village,  on  the  Tuscarawas,  or  as 
it  was  then  called,  the  Little  Muskingum.  The 
pioneer  missionary.  Rev.  Charles  Frederick  Post, 
had  come  into  this  great  unknown  for  the  pur- 
pose of  making  known  to  them  the  God  of  his 
fathers.  This  was  in  1761.  Having  obtained  the 
permission  of  King  Beaver,  the  Delaware  chief, 
he  returned  the  following  year  with  a  young  en- 
thusiast,  John  Heckewelder    by    name,    then    but 

14 


Captain  Pipe 

nineteen  5'ears  of  age.  Having  located  his  cabin, 
he  proceeded  with  its  erection.  Fearing  that  he 
was  about  to  erect  a  fort,  the  Indians  ordered  him 
to  desist.  A  council  was  held.  Post  convinced 
them  of  his  peaceful  intentions.  Hopocan,  a  Del- 
aware chief,  was  appointed  to  pace  off  a  square  of 
hft\^  paces  each  way.  This  space  was  thought  to 
be  sufficient  for  the  Mission  and  its  attending  corn 
fields.  Captain  Pipe,  the  suspicious;  Pipe,  the 
craft_v,  Pipe  the  wronged,  was  jealous  of  the  white 
men.  He  was  afraid  of  missionaries,  doubtful  of 
new  religions,  ignorant  of  disinterested  benevo- 
lence, and  knew  no  virtues  but  those  he  had  im- 
bibed from  his  progenitors.  The  court  of  final 
arbitration  was  to  him  the  tomahawk  and  scalping 
knife.  The  rewards  for  a  good  life  well  lived,  was 
the  favor  of  the  Great  Spirit  in  the  happy  hunt- 
ing grounds  of  the  spirit  land.  You  ma\^  then  be 
sure  that  his  steps  were  not  overly  long. 

Col.  May  speaks  of  seeing  Capt  Pipe  at  Fort 
Harmar,  in  1788,  and  says,  "Here  I  was  intro- 
duced to  Old  Pipes,  chief  of  the  Delaware  Nation, 
and  his  suite,  dressed  and  acting  like  the  offspring 
of  Satan."  Wm.  M.  Barlington  says  "He  was 
ambitious,  bold,  and  noted  for  schemes  and  strat- 
egy; Captain  Pipe  was  a  prominent  chief  of  the 
Wolf  tribe,  the  most  warlike  of  the  Delawares?" 
The  Colonial  Records  of  Pennsylvania  state  that 
he  was  among  the  warriors  at  the  conference  held 
at  Fort  Pittt,   in  July  1759,   between  George  Cro- 

15 


Captain  Pipe 

gan,  who  was  Sir  Wm.  Johnson's  deputy  Indian 
agent,  and  the  Indians  of  the  Six  Nations,  Shaw- 
nees  and  Delawares. 

While  Colonel  Bouquet  was  at  Fort  Pitt  in 
1764,  preparatory  to  his  famous  expedition  to  the 
heart  of  the  Ohio  country,  six  Indians  appeared 
on  a  September  morning  on  the  bank  of  the  river 
across  from  Fort  Pitt.  Bouquet  finally  prevailed 
upon  the  Indians  to  visit  the  fort,  when  he  made 
them  prisoners.  Three  were  soon  released  and 
sent  to  the  Indian  tribes  with  his  messages;  the 
other  three,  among  whom  was  Captain  Pipe,  were 
retained  as  hostages  until  after  the  return  of  Col- 
onel Bouquet's  army  from  the  Muskingum  coun- 
try, when  they  were  set  free.  Captain  Pipe  was  a 
prisoner  in  Fort  Pitt  for  nearly  three  months,  and 
it  was  here  where  he  learned  to  talk  English. 

In  the  following  year,  1765,  Captain  Pipe  was 
at  Fort  Pitt  as  one  of  the  chief  warriors  of  the 
Delawares,  attending  the  "great  talk"  at  that 
place.  Nearly  six  hundred  chiefs  and  warriors 
with  their  squaws  and  papooses  were  present.  He 
again  was  present  at  the  great  conference  held  at 
Fort  Pitt  in  April,  1768,  between  George  Croghan 
and  over  one  thousand  chiefs  and  warriors  of  the 
Six  Nations,  and  other  scattering  tribes.  In  1771, 
as  the  leading  chief  of  the  Delawares,  he  sent  a 
speech  to  Governor  John  Penn,  of  Pennsylvania, 
which  is  printed   in  the  Archives  of  that  State. 

This  same  Governor, John  Penn, a  son  of  Wm. 

16 


Captain   Pipe 

Penn,  offered  by  proclamation,  a  premium  for  In- 
dian captives  and  scalps,  "For  the  capture  of 
any  male  above  ten  years  of  age,  one  hundred 
and  fifty-dollars;  or  for  his  scalp,  being  killed,  one 
hundred  and  thirty-four  dollars;  and  for  every  fe- 
male captive,  one  hundred  and  thirty  dollars,  or 
for  the  scalp  of  such  female  killed,  fifty  dollars." 

The  Penns,  offering  a  bounty  for  women's 
scalps!  humane  isn't  it? 

In  May,  1774,  in  company  with  White  E5'es, 
Killbuck,  Guyasuta  and  other  prominent  Delaware 
chiefs,  Capt.  Pipe  met  George  Croghan,  who  came 
with  Dr.  John  Connelly,  Lord  Dunmore's  tool,  in 
company  with  the  leading  citizens  at  Fort  Pitt,  in 
regard  to  the  dastardly  murder  of  Logan's  rela- 
tives by  Cresap  and  Greathouse.  Croghan  was 
the  most  active  of  all  early  treaty  makers.  On 
Aug  7,  1757,  he  met  Freedyuscung,  king  of  the 
Delaware  Nation,  at  Easton,  Pa.  This  aged  Indi- 
an king  was  the  arbitrator  of  ten  different  tribes, 
and  at  its  close  he  said  to  George  Crogham,  "We 
have  now  finished;  the  treaty  is  over,  peace  is  con- 
firmed, and  I  told  you  I  thought  of  going  to  Phil- 
adelphia; but  upon  considering  the  matter  with 
more  attention  I  think  it  will  be  more  for  the  pub- 
lic service  to  proceed  immediately  to  Diohoga. 
Man}'  nations  will  be  uneasy  to  know  what  has 
been  done  at  this  council  fire,  and  will  take  meas- 
ures accordingl}'.  I  shall  make  the  best  of  my 
way  to    Diohoga,    and    proclaim    there    to  nations 

17  '^ 


Captain  Pipe 

still  more  distant  the  confirmation  of  the  peace 
with  our  brethren  the  English!  This  will  take  up 
three  or  four  months."  Indian  tribes  pronounced 
Cuyahoga  differently.  The  Delaware  name  for 
the  River  was  Diohoga.  Fernow,  in  his  second 
m.ap  published  in  '1754.,  calls  it  Diohoga. 

George  Croghan  in  his  Journal,  bearing  date 
July  19,  C727,  says:  "I  understand  it  is  the  Lake 
Indians  that  are  annoying  the  frontiers  at  present, 
with  perhaps  one  or  two  Delawares  with  each  par- 
t}'."  Sir  Wm.  Johnson,  British  Indian  agent  for 
North  America,  at  this  time,  informed  the  British 
Lords  of  Trade,  that  there  were  on  the  Scioto 
River  and  its  branches,  three  hundred  Shawnees 
warriors;  on  the  Muskingum,  Tuscarawas  and 
thence  to  Lake  Erie,  six  hundred  Delaware  braves; 
and  near  Lake  Erie,  two  hundred  Wj'andots. 
This  estimate  of  Johnson's  according  to  all  other 
authorities,  fell  twenty-two  hundred  short.  This 
proves  two  things.  First,  that  previous  to  1757, 
the  Delawares  were  already  a  power  upon  the  Re- 
serve. Secondly  that  the  depredations  of  the  sav- 
ages upon  the  Pennsj'lvania  borders  came  largeh' 
from  the  Indians  of  northern  Ohio. 

It  has  been  said  that  Captain  Pipe  was  at 
"Braddock's  field"  in  1755.  In  1759,  as  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  Delaware  Nation,  he  held  a 
"peace  talk"  with  George  Croghan.  In  1764,  Bou- 
quet used  the  fact  that  his  release  depended  upon 
the  chiefs    delivering    up    their   captives.      In    the 


Captain  Pipe 

years  1765,  and  1768,  he  was  again  at  Fort  Pitt  in 
the  interest  of  the  Delawares.  In  1771  he  deliver- 
ed a  speech  to  the  Governor  of  Pennsj'lvania.  In 
1774  he  again  was  at  Fort  Pitt,  trying  to  wrest  sat- 
isfaction from  the  whites  for  the  coldblooded  mur- 
der of  Logan's  relatives.  So  far,  his  peace  efforts 
had  been  in  vain;  from  now  on,  his  history  was  to 
be  written  in  blood.  The  savagery  of  his  nature 
was  to  have  full  expression.  Deeds  of  daring  and 
bloody  reprisals  were  to  make  his  name  dreaded,  but 
famous,  all  over  the  north  west.  The  ambush,  the 
scalping  knife,  the  midnight  foray,  the  sudden 
march,  the  quick  retreat,  the  battle  by  day,  the 
torture  stake,  were  to  write  his  name  in  letters 
of  scarlet.  Swift,  relentless,  tireless,  he  was  ever 
in  the  wake  of  death,  and  agon)-,  and  women's 
moans. 

In  1774,  he  fought  against  Lewis  at  Point 
Pleasant.  In  1778,  he  battled  against  the  forces 
of  Gen'l  Mcintosh;  in  the  midst  of  one  of  the  cold- 
est winters,  for  long,  weary  weeks  he  invested  Fort 
Laurens,  until  he  accomplished  the  fall  of  that  post 
— the  first  stockaded  and  parapeted  fort  within  the 
limits  of  Ohio.  In  1779,  Col.  Bowman's  expedi- 
tion felt  his  deathly  grip.  In  1781  he  slaughtered 
Col.  Lochry's  command,  and  hung  upon  the  flanks 
of  Col.  Broadhead's  disgraceful  expedition.  In 
1781  his  scouts  hung  upon  Col.  Crawford's  force 
from  the  time  it  left  the  Mingo  bottoms  until  it 
reached  the  Sandusky    plains.        An  unseen,  but  a 

19 


Captain  Pipe 

watchful,  tireless,  vigilant,  active  foe;  and  when 
the  time  came  to  strike,  Pipe  was  transformed  into 
a  murderous  demon,  until  he  was  glutted  with  mas- 
sacre, and  woe  and  death.  He  it  was  who  captured 
the  commander  of  an  unfortunate  expedition  and 
retreated  with  his  prisoners  until  he  reached  one  of 
his  villages  upon  the  Tymochtee.  Here  Pipe 
painted  Col.  Crawford  the  death  color  with  his  own 
hands,  while  the  victim  appealed  to  him  in  vain. 
Had  Pipe  been  mercenar}',  he  could  have  had  riches 
to  forego  his  revenge,  but  all  the  gold  in  India 
could  not  have  purchased  Crawford's  life.  Pipe's 
word  had  passed  that  he  must  die  at  the  torture 
stake.  The  scene  of  that  long,  agonizing,  death 
trial  is  a  matter  of  national  historj^;  we  do  not  pro- 
pose to  repeat  it  here — it's  something  to  be  omit- 
ted, to  be  glossed  over,  and  forgotten  with  the 
causes  that  made  it  possible,  and  seemingly  neces- 
sar3',  to  those  wild  men  of  the  forest.  Later  this 
3'ear,  1782,  in  August,  there  was  a  grand  council 
at  "Old  Chillicothe  Towns,"  on  or  near  the  Great 
Miami,  in  which  the  Wyandots,  Delawares,  Otta- 
was,  Mingoes,  Pottawatomies,  Shawnees,  and  Mi- 
amis  participated.  George  and  Simon  Girty,  El- 
liott and  McKee  were  present  and  addressed  the 
council.  Two  armies  were  raised.  One  of  six 
hundred  to  march  into  Kentucky  and  lay  waste  the 
settlements  of  the  "long  knives;"  the  other,  three 
hundred  and  fift_v  strong  was  to  harass  the  border 
settlements  of  Pennsylvania  and  \'irginia.       Capt. 

20 


Captain  Pipe 

Armstrong,  Thos.  Lyons,  Bill  Montour,  Baptiste 
Jerome  and  Thomas  Jelloway  were  Pipe's  lieuten- 
ants. The  attack  upon  Br^'ant's  Station,  the  siege 
of  Wheeling,  the  investment  of  Fort  Rice,  the 
burning  homes,  the  massacred  families,  are  all 
matters  of  history  and  need  not  be  recalled.  Soon 
after  this,  Gen'l  Geo.  Rogers  Clark  was  afield  with 
a  thousand  picked  borderers  from  Kentucky  and 
Virginia.  The  Indian  towns  on  the  Miami  River 
were  ravaged  and  burned,  and  the  Shawnees  driven 
far  into  the  interior. 

Man}'  of  the  Christian  Moravian  Indians  were 
of  Capt.  Pipe's  tribe.  He  had  no  use  for  an  Indi- 
an who  would  pray  but  not  fight,  hence  his  enmi- 
ty towards  them  up  to  the  year  1782.  It  was 
Capt.  Pipe  and  his  braves  that  escorted  Captain 
Matthew  Elliott, the  British  emissary,  who  entered 
the  Tuscarawas  Valley  and  made  prisoners  of  the 
Moravians  on  Sept.  11,  1781,  escorting  them  to 
"Captives  Town,"  on  the  Sandusky  river,  about 
ten  miles  from  Upper  Sandusky.  After  the  mas- 
sacre of  the  Moravians,  March  8,  1782,  by  Col. 
Williamson,  the  sympathies  of  Capt.  Pipe  were 
turned  towards  the  persecuted  Moravians,  and  he 
became  their  avenger.  The  sequel  of  this  was  the 
torture  of  Col.  Crawford  at  the  stake.  The  mas- 
sacre of  the  Moravians  was  the  cause,  the  torture 
of  Crawford,  the  result,  making  a  deep,  foul  blot 
on  the  otherwise  fair  history  of  Ohio,  a  blot  that 
centuries  of  good  deeds  will  not  wipe  out. 

21 


Captain  Pipe 

Although  he  was  an  inveterate  enemy  of  the 
whites,  yet  he  was  a  chronic  treat}^  maker,  and 
when  the  first  treaty  was  made  establishing  bound- 
aries in  Ohio,  Pipe  was  on  hand,  and  although  the 
treaty  robbed  him  of  his  own  village,  he  signed  it  as 
"Capt.  Pipe,  King  of  New  Portage."  This  treaty 
was  concluded  at  Fort  Mcintosh,  in  January  1785. 
Colonels  Logan,  in  1786,  Edwards  in  1787,  and 
Todd  in  1788,  made  warlike  expeditions  into  the 
Ohio  country,  but  we  find  no  evidence  of  the  old 
chief  taking  part  against  any  of  these;  indeed  for 
the  next  three  3'ears  we  lose  sight  of  him  altogether 
with  the  exception  that  he  attended  and  signed  the 
treat}'  at  Fort  Finney  in  1786.  In  1787,  he  joined 
the  confederate  tribes  in  favor  of  the  United  States. 
In  1788,  we  find  him  at  Marietta,  welcoming^the 
first  permanent  settlers  to  the  Ohio  country,  as 
the  "Mayflower"  swung  boldly  against  the  bank. 
At  this  time  he  la^'  encamped  here,  with  sevent}'  of 
his  braves.  Gen'l.  Harmar  writing  from  Fort  Har- 
mar.  Mar.  8,  1788,  says,  "Yesterday  Old  Pipe 
with  seven  of  his  young  men  arrived  at  the  garri- 
son and  are  now  with  me.  Their  object  is  to  dis- 
pose of  their  skins  to  the  contractor.  He  is  a  man- 
ly old  fellow,  and  much  more  of  a  gentleman  than 
the  generality  of  these  frontier  people." 

The  next  year  the  gathering  war  clouds  hung 
darkly  over  the  border  settlements;  the  burnings, 
the  robbings,  the  massacres,  were  fleeting  episodes 
in  the  terrible  drama  then  being  played.      Such  a 

22 


Captain  Pipe 

sound  of  woe  went  up  from  all  the  frontier  settle- 
ments that  Gen'l  Harmar  made  a  vigorous  but  un- 
fortunate campaign  against  the  Indians.  This  did 
not  subdue  the  savages,  but  seemed  only  to  increase 
their  audacity  and  ferociousness.  Capt.  Pipe  was 
here,  there  and  ever3^where.  The  blood  had  no 
time  to  drj' on  their  tomahawks  or  scalping  knives. 
It  was  a  harvest  of  death  and  vengeance,  and  his 
young  men  grew  fat  and  daring.  The  bloody 
morning  of  Nov.  4th,  1791,  opened  dark  and 
gloomy,  and  a  half  an  hour  before  the  time  of  sun- 
rise, the  ill  fated  forces  of  St.  Clair  gave  way  be- 
fore the  Indian  attack:  from  that  time  to  night  fall, 
the  tomahawks  and  scalping  knives  of  Capt.  Pipe 
and  his  braves  fell  unceasingl^^  Pipe  afterward 
declared  that  he  had  "tomahawked  whites  until 
his  arm  ached."  From  this  time  on,  the  Indian 
warfare  n-ever  stopped  until  the  savage  power  was 
broken  by  "Mad  Anthony  Wayne."  All  through 
the  3"ears  of  1792-3-4,  this  carnival  of  butchery 
and  bloodshed  continued;  the  old  chief  was  fore- 
most in  all  the  bloody  deeds,  he  harangued  waver- 
ing chiefs,  he  sent  his  runners  to  every  distant 
village,  he  led  his  braves  in  person  in  every 
desperate  venture.  Wayne's  army  moved  Oct  7, 
1793,  building  forts  and  garrisoning  them  as  they 
went,  and  on  August  20,  1794,  the  battle  of  Fallen 
Timbers  was  fought  and  won, and  the  Indian  power 
broken,  until  Tecumseh  could  rally  and  bind  the 
scattered    fragments    together,    3'ears    later,    in    a 

23 


Captain  Pipe 

desperate  attempt  to  recover  the  ground  their 
fathers  had  lost.  After  the  treaty  of  Greenville 
in  1795,  when  Capt  Pipe  again  signed  his  name  as 
"Hopocan,  King  of  New  Portage."  Some  3'ears 
later,  Thomas  Lj'ons,  one  of  Pipe's  lieutenants 
was  interviewed  as  to  his  opinion  of  Wayne. 

"Him  be  great  chief."  said  the  Indian.  "He 
be  one  devil  to  fight.  Me  hear  his  dinner  horn — 
way  over  there  go  toot,  toot;  then  way  over  here 
it  go  toot,  toot — then  way  over  other  side,  go  toot, 
toot,  then  his  soldiers  run  forward — shoot,  shoot; 
then  run  among  logs  and  brush.  Indians  have 
got  to  get  out  and  run.  Then  come  Long  Knives 
and  shoot,  shoot.  Indians  run,  no  stop.  Old 
Tom  see  too  much  fight  to  be  trap — he  run  into 
woods — he  run  like  devil — he  keep  run  till  he  clear 
out  of  danger.  Wayne  great  fight — brave  white 
chief.  He  be  one  devil."  After  the  treaty  of 
Greenville  the  old  chief  became  a  changed  man,  he 
left  the  war  path,  he  buried  the  hatchet  forever. 
Old  age  ma}'  have  had  something  to  do  with  this 
but, be  this  as  it  ma^',  he  from  that  time  on  became 
friendly  to  the  whites.  In  1785  they  had  ceded 
to  the  United  States  the  ground  on  which  his  war- 
village  stood,  by  the  treaties  of  1785  and  1786 
and  in  1795,  he  confirmed  this;  so  after  the  treaty 
he  moved  across  the  line  and  at  sometime  from 
1795-97,  probably  in  the  latter  part  of  1795  or  the 
earlier  part  of  1796,  he  with  Jerome  and  others  of 
his  tribe,    built   a   village    on    the    site  of  the  old 

24 


Captain   Pipe 

Mohican  Johnstown,  on  the  south  side  of  the 
Jerome  Fork  of  the  Mohican,  about  three-quarters 
of  a  mile  from  the  present  site  of  Jeromeville, 
Ashland  county.  Pipe  built  a  wigwam  on  the 
river  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  below  the  village. 
From  this  time  on,  to  the  close  of  his  career,  ac- 
counts of  him  are  very  conflicting.  In  1808, 
while  surve3'ing  Jackson  township,  Maxfield 
Ludlow  discovered  a  blazed  road  which  was  said 
to  run  to  the  mouth  of  the  Kayhoga  (Cuyahoga). 
In  the  same  3'ear  Joseph  Larwill,  while  surve3'ing 
the  sectional  divisions  of  the  second  township  be- 
low the  Reserve  line,  made  the  acquaintance  of  the 
old  chief.  Hon.  A.  H.  B3'ers  says,  "Captain 
Pipe  and  several  of  his  warriors  came  upon  the 
surve3'ing  part3'  and  ordered  them  to  desist,  sa\'- 
ing:  You  go  tick — tuck,  tick — tuck,  all  da\'.  Me 
cut  3'our  legs  off,  then  how  you  go  tick — tuck, 
tick — tuck?  In  the  meantime  his  warriors  seized 
and  ran  awa3'  with  the  chain,  and  thus  put  a  stop, 
for  a  while,  to  the  work." 

Mr.  Copus,  who  was  afterwards  massacred  by 
the  Indians,  said,  that  in  the  fall  of  1809,  he  at- 
tended an  Indian  feast  given  by  the  savages  of  the 
Greentown  village.  They  were  addressed  by  old 
Captain  Pipe.  Mr.  Copus  further  states  that  the 
chief  was  old,  tall  and  graceful.  His  eyes  had 
the  fire  of  3'outh,  and  blazed  with  emotion  while  he 
was  speaking.  The  whole  audience  seemed  deeply 
moved  b3'   the  oration.       The    savages    frequently 

25 


Captain  Pipe 

sobbed  and  seemed  deeply  affected.  Alexander 
Coulter  states  that  he  also  attended  a  feast  in  the 
Indian  town  of  Greentown  in  1811,  at  which  Old 
Captain  Pipe  was  present.  So  far  as  we  are  able 
to  learn,  this  was  the  last  public  appearance  of  the 
old  chieftain.  Mr.  Coulter  says,  "This  was  the 
last  we  hear  of  him  at  any  public  gathering  in  this 
region;  and  we  are  inclined  to  think  this  feast  fore- 
shadowed the  calamitous  war  of  181 2,  which  com- 
menced a  few  months  after  the  feast."  James  Fin- 
le}^  says  he  saw  Pipe  in  his  village  a  number  of 
times  but  he  has  no  recollection  of  his  having  wife 
or  children.  He  further  states  that  he  left  early 
in  the  summer  of  1812.  An  old  lady  in  Richland 
count}',  states  that  she  saw  and  talked  with  Pipe 
during  the  war  and  that  he  then  was  over  a  hun- 
dred j-ears  old.  All  authorities  agree  upon  his 
disappearance.  One  writer  says  that  just  before 
the  beginning  of  hostilities  in  1812,  he  in  compan}- 
with  some  of  his  warriors  quietl}'  slipped  awaj'. 
Another  says  he  made  his  way  to  Canada.  Mere 
surmises,  all  of  them.  The  fact  remains  that  in 
18 12  he  wandered  away.  The  probabilities  are  that 
either  he  was  met  in  some  woodland  nook,  b}' 
some  of  the  various  bands  of  Indian  hunters  and 
killed,  or  as  tradition  saith,  died  of  remorse.  He 
was  an  old,  a  very  old  man,  yet  his  influence  was 
worth  much  to  the  British.  He  was  repeatedly  ap- 
proached by  their  agents.  To  their  last,  he  drew 
himself    up  proudly,  saying    "When  I    signed  the 

26 


Captain  Pipe 

treat}'  at  Greenville,  it  was  understood  that  I  was 
not  again  to  take  up  the  hatchet  while  the  trees 
grow  and  the  waters  run."  Daniel  Carter  said, 
that  when  he  was  about  eleven  3'ears  old  his  father 
sent  him  to  mill,  earh'  in  the  spring  of  1812.  Pipe 
and  his  Delawares  had  not  as  j'et  left  Mohican 
Johnstown.  Upon  his  return  in  the  evening,  he 
reached  the  Indian  village  a  little  after  dark. 
The  savages  were  holding  a  council  at  the 
council  house.  He  stopped  to  witness  it.  He 
says  that  it  was  at  this  "pow-wow"  that  the 
"red  stick,"  of  Tecumseh  was  rejected  by  old 
Capt.  Pipe.  In  1788,  both  Colonel  May  and  Gen- 
eral Harmar  spoke  of  the  chieftain  as  an  old  man. 
This  was  twenty-four  years  before  this  date;  if 
then  he  was  an  old  man,  what  was  he  with  twent}'- 
four  winters  added  to  his  age?  Who  then  was 
the  Captain  Pipe  of  the  war  of  1812?  Dr.  Geo. 
W.  Hill,  the  historian  of  Marion,  Wyandot,  Allen 
Richland  and  Ashland  Counties,  calls  him  Capt. 
Pipe  Jr.  and  regards  him  as  a  son  of  Old  Captain 
Pipe.  Ebenezer  Rice  says  that  he  was  well  ac- 
quainted with  the  chiefs,  Armstrong's  sons  '  and 
young  Pipe,  a  son  of  old  Capt.  Pipe."  In  a  letter 
addressed  to  Dr. Geo.  W.  Hill  in  1873,  Governor 
Wm.  Walker,  of  Kansas,  says  "At  the  treaty  of 
Maumee,  held  in  the  summer  of  1817,  a  reservation 
of  a  township  to  include  'Pipestown'  was  made 
to  these  people.  When  the  colonization  of  Indians 
in  the  west,    under   General  Jackson's    administra- 

27 


Captain  Pipe 

tion,  went  into  operation,  thej'  with  other  Ohio 
tribes,  ceded  their  domain  and  went  west  under 
the  leadership  of  Captain  Pipe,  their  surviving 
chief.  The  elder  Captain  Pipe  could  not  have  died 
as  early  as  1794,  for  he  certainly  was  at  the  treat}^ 
of  Greenville,  when  the  pacification  took  place  in 
the  following  year,  and  Howe,  in  his  pictorial  his- 
tor}',  says:  "The  Delaware  Indians  had  a  settle- 
ment at  or  near  Jeromeville,  which  thev  left  at  the 
beginning  of  the  war.  Their  chief  was  Old  Captain 
Pipe.  When  young  he  was  a  great  warrior,  and 
the  implacable  foe  of  the  whites.  He  was  in  St. 
Clair's  defeat,  where  according  to  his  own  account 
he  distinguished  himself,  'and  slaughtered  white 
men  until  his  arm  was  weary  with  the  work.'  I 
can  gather  no  reliable  information  about  him  from 
the  present  generation  of  Wyandots.  The  late 
Capt.  Pipe  was  undoubtedly  the  son  of  the  former, 
and  the  only  son.  He  died  in  this  country  in  1839 
or  1840,  leaving  no  children.  I  do  not  think  he 
was  ever  married.  He  was  a  man  of  fine  natural 
abilities,  good  natured  and  genial  in  disposition, 
and  popular  with  his  people." 

This,  then  was  the  Capt.  Pipe  of  the  war  of 
1812,  the  British  emissarj',  a  leader  of  renegade 
braves  from  other  tribes.  At  a  treaty  in  1814-17, 
territory'  six  miles  south  of  Upper  Sandusky  was 
set  apart  as  a  reservation  for  the  savages  from 
the  Indian  Villages  of  Jerometown  and  Greentown, 
in  Ashland  County.      The  new  village  built  there 

28 


Captain  Pipe 

was  called  "Pipetown"  in  honor  of  Capt.  Pipe,  Jr. 
who  was  made  half-king  and  in  conjunction  with 
one  of  Armstrong's  sons,  presided  as  chief  over 
the  village.  This  treat}'  was  signed  in  presence  of 
Wm.  Walker,  then  an  interpreter  to  the  Wyandots, 
later,  Governor  of  Kansas.  It  was  signed  by  Pipe 
Jr,  as  was  the  treaty  of  1823.  Early  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1812,  Capt  Douglas  arrived  at  Jeromeville, 
and  Greentown,  with  a  company  of  militia,  to  re- 
move the  Indians  to  either  Urbana,  or  Piqua; 
authorities  differ.  Armstrong  at  that  time  had 
eight}'  braves. 

In  1778  a  conference  was  held  between 
Andrew  and  Thomas  Lewis,  United  States  Com- 
missioners, and  the  Delaware  chiefs,  Capt.  Pipe, 
White  Eyes,  Killbuck  and  others.  Previous  to 
this  Governor  Hamilton,  of  Detroit,  had  been  try- 
ing to  array  all  the  Ohio  tribes  against  the  strug- 
gling colonists  in  their  fight  for  liberty.  The  Del- 
awares  on  the  Cuyahoga  and  Tuscarawas,  were  of 
two  clans,  the  turtle  and  the  wolf.  The  turtle 
clan  favored  peace,  although  years  before  the  Six 
Nations  had  dubbed  them  as  "old  women".  The 
wolf  clan  being  the  most  warlike  resented  the 
name  and  declared  for  war.  It  was  but  a  short 
time  after  this  conference  at  Fort  Pitt,  before  the 
long  threatened  rupture  between  Capt  Pipe  and 
White  Eyes  occurred.  This  rupture  was  during 
the  revolutionary  war  and  not  at  the  beginning  of 
the  war  of  1812  as  some   historians  are   so  fond  of 

29 


Captain   Pipe 

stating.  Chiefs  White  Eyes  and  Netawtwees,  were 
firm  for  peace,  while  Pipe,  Half  King  and  Wingen- 
und  declared  for  war.  Early  in  1782  Capt  Pipe  and 
Half  King  went  from  tribe  to  tribe,  from  village  to 
village,  exhorting,  coaxing,  threatening  until  the 
secret  fastnesses  in  and  around  the  Sandusky 
Plains,  soon  teemed  with  three  thousand  painted, 
bedecked  red  devils  waiting  for  their  expected 
prey.  The  old  chief  had  not  only  the  power  of 
bringing  out  his  own  young  men,  but  the  Wyan- 
dots,  Shawnees,  Ottowas,  Miamis,  Mingoes  and 
Mohegans  answered  to  his  rallying  war  cry. 

Had  Pipe  been  born  under  different  conditions, 
from  a  tribe  that  was  homogeneous,  instead  of  one 
that  for  a  century  had  been  content  to  pay  tribute 
toothers  and  bear  the  name,  "women,"  in  patience; 
which  was  divided  into  four  distinct  and  separate 
clans,  owning  their  own  chiefs,  and  not  subservient 
to  others:  had  he  like  Pontiac  been  born  of  a 
tribe  who  had  no  great  chiefs,  or  like  Tecumseh,  of 
a  tribe  that  thought  and  acted  as  one,  to  whom  war 
was  not  only  a  business,  but  a  pastime,  he  would 
have  risen  to  a  greater  height  than  either  of  these. 
His  name  would  have  been  blazoned  high  on  the 
escutcheon  of  fame,  and  he  would  have  stood  head 
and  shoulders  above  any  other  aboriginal  war  chief 
of  North  America.  He  had  all  the  qualities  of  an 
Indian  statesman  and  warrior.  He  was  temperate 
and  ambitious,  intelligent  and  cunning,  eloquent 
and  persuasive,  frank  but  discreet,  skilful  and  dar- 

30 


Captain  Pipe 

ing,  active  and  cautious,  relentless  and  persistent, 
wary  and  vindictive,  suspicious  but  winning.  His 
form  was  the  embodiment  of  elasticiti\-  and  en- 
durance, his  eloquence  would  melt  the  stoutest 
warrior  to  tears,  or  send  him  a  whooping  maniac 
slashing  his  tomahawk  into  the  painted  war-post  of 
his  village. 

W.  A.  Adams  in  his  reminiscences,  relates  an 
anecdote  that  was  characteristic  of  the  man.  He 
and  his  squaw  took  supper  on  one  occasion  with 
Mr.  Adams'  father.      "Mr.  Adams  said — 

"Captain  Pipe,  I  notice  that  you  do  not  drink 
whisk}'  like  other  Indians." 

"You  are  mistaken,"  said  Pipe,  "l  love  whis- 
ky, but  refuse  to  drink  because  it  sets  a  bad  ex- 
ample.    Among  gentlemen  I  drink." 

Mr.  Adams  handed  the  Captain  a  bottle  and  a 
glass,  and  he  drank  the  health  of  all,  remarking: 

"We  Indians  have  a  saying  which  is  good.  It 
is,  "Captain  Whisk}'  is  a  brave  warrior;  you  fight 
him  long  enough  and  he  is  sure  to  get  your  scalp." 

Capt.  Pipe  signed  his  treaties  as  King  of  New 
Portage.  Why  New?  the  writer  has  never  been 
able  to  ascertain.  Had  there  been  a  change  in  the 
Portage?  was  this  really  a  new  one?  Certain  earlv 
European  maps  give  the  portage  at  one  mile;  nota- 
ble among  these  are  Jeffries',  Bowen  and  Gibson's. 
We  only  know  that  sometime  between  1700  and 
1725,  the  Cuyahoga  cut  a  new  channel  to  the  lake 
through  high  hills. 

31 


Portage  Path 


From  the  Early  European  Map-Makers 
Point  of  View 


It  is  an  undoubted  fact  that  in  the  earliest  of 
the  very  early  times,  the  portage  between  the  waters 
running  south  and  north  was  much  shorter  than  it 
has  been  during  the  last  one  hundred  and  fifty 
years. 

Golden's  map  of  uncertain  date,  showing  the 
various  portages,  gives  Michigan  Lake,  Lake  of 
the  Hurons,  Lake  Erie  or  Okswego,  and  Cataraqui 
or  Ontario.  The  region  north  of  Lake  Erie  is 
given  as  "The  country  conquered  by  the  Five 
Nations." 

This  map  shows  a  "portage,"  or  "carrying 
place"  from  a  river  running  in  to  the  west  end  of 
Lake  Erie,  unnamed,  to  the  Ouabache  river," 
also  a  "carrying  place"  from  the  Cuyahoga  to  the 
Ohio  river,  of  which  the  Allegheny  is  not  a 
branch,  but  a  direct  continuation. 

The  Jeffries  map,  improved  by  L  Gibson, 
gives  the  portage  between  the  Cuyahoga  and  the 
Muskingum  at  one  mile. 

Andrew's  New  Map  of  the  American  Colonies, 

32 


Portage  Path 

London,  1783,  gives  the  Sandusk3'  portage  as  nine 
miles,  and  the  Portage  Path  as  one  mile. 

The  map  from  the  Ameriqtte  Septeyitrionale, 
far  Mitchel,  Paris,  1777,  calls  the  Cuyahoga, 
"the  Canahogue,"  as  well  as  the  country  south 
of  it,  and  says,  virtually,  that  the  country  for 
35  miles  south  of  Lake  Erie  was  devoted  to  the 
war  of  the  "Five  Nations"  and  afterwards  became 
their  hunting  grounds. 

Bowen  and  Gibson's  map  of  North  America, 
London,  1763,  also  gives  the  valley  of  the 
Cuj'ahoga  as  the  hunting  grounds  of  the  "Six 
Nations." 

Hutchinson's  map,  1764,  also  gives  the  length 
of  the  "Portage  Path"  as  one  mile. 

As  Long  Lake  and  Summit  Lake  were  origi- 
nally one  lake,  reaching  nearly  to  the  center  of 
Akron,  it  is  possible  that  at  one  time,  previous  to 
the  knowledge  of  the  whites,  the  Portage  Path 
was  really  but  one  mile  in  length. 


33 


What  the  Original   Surv^eyors   of  1796  Had 

to  Say  of  the  Portage  Path  and  Its 

Vicinity 


To  Richard  M.  Stoddard: 

You  will  proceed  up  the  river  to  our  head- 
quarters, though  I  am  at  a  loss  at  present  where  it 
will  be  fixed,  but  you  may  take  the  line  between 
the  loth  and  nth  ranges,  (the  line  between  Coven- 
try and  Springfield)  and  I  will  give  j^ou  notice  on 
that,  at  the  nearest  corner.  (Corner  Portage  and 
Tallmadge.)  We  shall  go  as  far  as  possible  with 
our  boats.  If  I  have  an  opportunity  I  will  send  a 
line  here,  after  we  have  fixed  our  headquarters. 
If  you  should  not  arrive  here  (Cleveland)  so  as  to 
be  there  in  about  thirty  da3's  from  this  date,  I 
think  you  had  better  not  go  up  the  river,  unless 
you  receive  another  line  from  your  humble  servant. 

Seth  Pease 

Saturday  June  lo —  Shepard  and  Warren's 
parties  took  their  departure  about  10:30  a.  m. 
Spafford's  and  ni}'  party  moved  up  the  river  about 
4.  p.  m.  Got  near  Warren's  line,  and  camped  on 
the  west  bank.      Left  a  frj'ing  pan. 

Mr.  Joe    Tinker — I    wish   you    to    return    and 

34 


Original  Surveyors 

bring  another  boat  load  of  stores  as  soon  as  possi- 
ble. You  will  take  four  hands,  and  have  such 
men  return  as  are  best  pleased  with  the  business 
of  boating.     I  wish  }'ou  a  prosperous  voyage. 

Seth  Pease 

Mr.  David  Beard,  Sir — The  survej'ors  have 
this  day  taken  to  the  bush.  We  intend  to  build  a 
store  house  up  the  river.  I  wish  you  and  those 
men  who  come  with  the  boat,  and  are  not  to  return 
with  Mr.  Tinker,  to  report  to  the  headquarters  and 
take  charge  of  the  stores .  *  *  3'ou  will  take 
a  boat  up  the  river,  with  three  barrels  of  flour  and 
two  of  pork,  some  chests  etc.,  which  Mr.  Hart  will 
show  you.  Seth  Pease 

Sunday',  June  ii — Ran  a  little  be^'ond  my  line 
and  camped  for  the  night  on  the  east  bank.  Sat- 
urday, June  17,  Mr.  Beard  took  charge  of  one 
boat,  and  myself  the  other,  and  proceeded  up  the 
river  about  a  mile  above  where  the  stream  from  the 
south  (Little  Cuyahoga)  comes  into  the  head  of 
boat  navigation. 

Sunday,  i8th — After  landing  our  stores  we 
took  one  boat  and  all  hands  went  down  to  Morley's 
(on  the  line  between  Boston  and  Northfield)  in  just 
three  hours. 

Monday,  July  17th  —  Started  from  upper- 
headquarters  (near  Akron)  at  i  p.  m.  to  continue 
the  second  parallel,  and  meet  Mr.  Pease  from  the 
south  (Pease  was  coming  on  the  south  line  of  the 
Reserve,    the  41st    meridian,  to    the   Tuscarawas) 

35 


Original  Surveyors 

Began  at  a  post  I  set  on  the  loth  meridian  (now 
Cuyahoga  Falls)  on  the  30th  of  June.  Ran  west 
between  towns  2  and  3,  Range  11,  (line  between 
Portage  and  Northampton.) 

Jul}'^  18, — River  fog  prevented  an  observation 
of  the  polar  star.  Struck  the  right  bank  of  the 
Cuyahoga  river  at  three  miles,  45  links  13  chains 
and  98  links  from  the  Portage  Tree,  in  which  I 
traversed  in  three  courses  the  last  crossing  the 
xiver.  I  then  traversed  the  Portage  Path  to  course 
number  23,  and  encamped  on  a  run  on  course 
number  7;  sent  Barker  back  after  crossing  the 
river. 

July  19  and  20 — Continued  the  traverse  to 
Tuscarawas  landing  (south  end  of  Portage  Path) 
at  courss  74.  At  number  72  is  a  large  white  oak, 
marked  with  many  hieroglyphics.  (Near  the  present 
center  of  Coventry,  in  fact  in  Mr.  Marsh's  door 
yard.  The  trail  runs  through  one  corner  of  his 
residence.)  In  this  vicinity  are  man}'  Indian 
camps.  The  traverse  from  the  second  parallel  by 
the  Portage  Path  is  658.53,  length  of  the  Portage 
644.55  chains. 

July  21 — Continued  a  traverse  down  the  river, 
from  which  I  was  allured  by  Mr.  Pease's  pack- 
horse  man  who  sounded  the  Indian  whoop  and 
being  answered  refused  to  reply  as  we  neared 
him.  (Mr.  Pease  had  run  the  south  line  of  the 
Western  Reserve,  from  a  point  20  miles  west  of 
ihe  Pennsylvania  line,  to  the   Tuscarawas   river  in 

36 


Original  Surveyors 

1 8  days.)  Mr.  Pease  connected  the  traverse  with 
mine  at  number  66,  forty-five  chains  southwest  of 
the  landing.  Returned  to  the  upper  headquarters, 
(near  Akron,)  with  Mr.  Pease  and  party  in  the 
evening.  Except  the  Cuyahoga  hill,  (north  end  of 
Portage  Path,)  the  Portage  will  admit  of  an  excel- 
lent road  and  that  is  not  so  formidable  as  the  one 
at  Queenstown,  Upper  Canada." 

Thus  ends  MosesWarren. 

Amzi  Atwater  states: —  "After  a  few  days  pre- 
paration, the  two  boats  with  some  of  the  surveyors 
started  up  the  river  with  the  assistants  and  provis- 
ions. I  with  one  or  two  other  men  was  sent  to  get 
the  horses  up  above  the  mouth  of  Tinker's  Creek 
for  the  use  of  the  surve3'ors.  Not  far  above  the 
creek  we  found  the  remnants  of  some  old  huts, 
parti}'  overgrown  with  thorn  and  plum  trees.  One 
or  more  fragments  of  doors  were  fastened  with  nails 
which  to  me  was  a  curiosity  to  see  in  such  a  place. 
I  suppose  the}'  were  the  remains  of  the  old  Mora- 
vian settlement.  We  found  the  boats  and  gave  up 
our  horses." 

"We  succeeded  in  getting  the  boats  past  Old 
Portage,  and  about  a  half  a  mile  above  the  south 
branch  of  the  Cuyahoga,  where  we  established  a 
camp.  I  was  left  there  in  charge  of  the  provisions 
and  stores,  while  some  of  the  surveyors  run  lines 
to  the  Pennsylvania  line,  and  others  back.  I 
erected  a  shed  covered  with  bark  to  cover  the 
provisions,    etc.,    and    a    tolerably  good    camp  for 

37 


Original  Surveyors 

myself.  The  surveying  parties  were  frequently 
coming  and  going  and  once  in  a  while  the  boats 
came  up,  some  sick,  others  well." 

While  there  two  or  more  Indian  hunters  were 
camped  some  distance  near  the  river,  below  us; 
one  of  them  frequently  visited  us.  He  was  more 
active  and  more  talkative  than  Indians  in  general." 
Sunday,  Aug.  27 — The  committee  concluded 
to  have  Esquire  Warren  go  up  the  Portage  Path 
and  explore  there  and  some  towns  on  the  river. 


38 


Portage  Path    The  Western    Boundary   of 
the  United  States  until  1805 


Colonel  Chas.  Whittlesey,  the  President  of  the 
Northern  Ohio  and  Western  Reserve  Historical 
Societ}-,  a  former  Summit  count}'  boy,  the  best 
historian  the  Western  Reserve  ever  had,  and  a 
man  whose  word  was  looked  upon  as  authoritative, 
said: — 

"When  Governor  St  Clair  erected  the  county 
of  Washington,  Ohio,  in  1778,  it  embraced  the 
Western  Reserve,  east  of  the  Cuyahoga.  West  of 
this  river,  the  Portage  Path,  and  the  Tuscarawas 
was  then  held  by  the  Indians  and  the  British." 

The  ordinance  of  1787,  "Ohio's  Charter  of  Lib- 
erty," the  last  act  of  the   "Old  Congress,  "says: — 

"The  utmost  good  faith  shall  alwa3'S  be  ob- 
served towards  the  Indians;  their  lands  and  prop- 
erty shall  never  be  taken  from  them  without  their 
consent."     The  same  act  of  Congress  says: — 

"The  navigable  waters  leading  into  the  Missis- 
sippi and  St.  Lawrence,  and  the  carrying  places  be- 
tween the  same,  shall  be  common  highivays  and 
FOREVER  FREE." 

Colonel  Chas.  Whittlesey  has  stated: — • 

"When  she   (Connecticut)    sold    to   the    Con- 

39 


The  Western  Boundary 

necticut  Land  Companj',  in  1795,  both  parties  im- 
agined that  the  deed  of  Connecticut  conveyed  pow- 
ers of  civil  government  to  the  company,  and  that 
the  grantees  might  organize  a  new  state." 

This  question,  was  not  settled  until  1801,  and 
then,  by  act  of  Congress.  The  residents  of  that 
portion  of  the  Western  Reserve  east  of  the  Cu}'a- 
hoga  river  and  Portage  Path,  petitioned  the  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States  to  receive  them  into  the 
union  of  the  states  and  territories,  and  for  civil  and 
jurisdictional  purposes  to  annex  them  to  the 
'Northwestern  Territor}'."  This  was  granted  by 
act  of  Congress  in  1801,  but  on  April  30,  1802, 
Congress  passed  an  act  enabling  Ohio  to  form  a 
state  government. 

A  treaty  was  concluded  at  Fort  Mcintosh,  Jan- 
uary 21,  1785,  with  the  W3'andot,  Delaware, 
Chippewa  and  Ottawa  nations,  b\^  which  the 
boundary  line  between  the  United  States  and  the 
Indian    nations  was  declared  to  begin: — 

"At  the  mouth  of  the  river  Cuyahoga,  and  to 
extend  up  said  river  to  the  Portage  between  that 
and  the  Tuscarawas  branch  of  the  Muskingum, 
thence  down  that  branch  etc."  This  was  made  bv 
the  United  States,  and  confirmed  by  the  acts  of 
her  Congress,  and  all  citizens  of  the  United  States, 
under  heavy  penalties  were  prohibited  from  set- 
tling on  land  west  of  this  line. 

The  western  boundary  line  of  the  United 
States  had    been    previously   fixed  by  the  treat}'  of 

40 


A   Unlet    Strctcli    on    (li.-   ( Wiyalioiiii 


The  Western    Boundary 

Fort  Stanwix,  October  27,1784,  at  the  Ohio  River. 
The  English  Parliament,  ten  years  earlier  had 
passed  an  act  making  the  Ohio  River  her  south 
western  boundar3\  The  claim  of  the  English  mon- 
arch to  the  northwestern  territor}'  was  false,  and 
he  knew  it,  but  under  extreme  pressure  he  ceded  it 
to  the  United  States  at  the  treat.v  of  Paris,  Sept.  3d 
1783.  The  treaty  of  Fort  Stanwix  followed  the  suc- 
ceeding year,  making  the  boundary  line  the  Ohio 
river.  The  succeeding  3'ear,  1785,  brought  the  Mc- 
intosh treaty,  establishing  the  western  boundary 
line  at  Portage  Path  and  Cuyahoga  Valley.  This 
was  confirmed  by  the  "Old  Congress"  the  same 
year,  and  was  reaffirmed  by  the  same  great  author- 
ity in  Ohio's  Charter  of  Freedom,  the  Ordinance  of 
1787,  when  it  says: — "Their  lands  and  property 
(the  Indians')  shall  never  be  taken  away  from  them 
Avith-out  their  consent." 

The  western  boundary,  thus  established  at  the 
treaty  of  Fort  Mcintosh  in  1785,  was  subsequently 
confirmed  b)'  the  treaties  of  Fort  Finney,  1786, 
and  Fort  Harmar,  1789,  all  of  which  were  accepted 
and  confirmed  by  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States. 

The  claim  of  Connecticut  was  adjudicated 
twice.  First,  by  a  Royal  Commission  in  1664,  be- 
tween the  Colony  and  the  Duke  of  York,  and  again, 
by  a  commission  appointed  b}'  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  in  1782. 

Connecticut  and  the    land  company.  Congress 

^41 


The  Western    Boundary 

and  her  authorized  officers,  the  surveyors  of  1796, 
and  men  of  all  classes,  and  in  ever^f  walk  of  life, 
accepted  the  Portage  Path  as  the  boundarj^  between 
the  United  States  and  the  wild  nations  of  the  west- 
ern continent. 

The  Western  Reserve  east  of  Portage  Path, 
was  four  times  the  subject  of  treaty  by  the  United 
States  of  America,  and  was  three  times  paid  for  in 
government  funds. 

There  is  no  question  or  doubt  that  the  Portage 
Path  was  the  western  boundary  of  the  United 
States  for  twenty  years. 

It  took  England  two  years  to  "falsify  the  re- 
turns," and  quit  claim  to  this  country  that  they 
did  not  own  in  fee  simple.  France  transferred  her 
rights  to  England  except  her  southern  possessions. 
England  transferred  her  rights  south  of  a  certain 
line  to  this  country.  England  quit-claimed  only 
her  rights  beyond  the  Ohio.  She  had  no  civil 
rights  and  but  very  dubious  political  ones.  The 
soil  beyond  the  Ohio  was  held  in  fee  simple  by  the 
various  Indian  nations;  they  owned  all  the  civil 
and  political  rights,  it  was  hereditary,  they  were 
indigenous  to  the  soil,  the  native  lords  to  the 
manor  born;  their  lands  could  be  obtained  only  by 
conquest,  by  purchase,  or  by  treaty. 

There  were  no  Indian  reservations  in  those 
days.  The  Indian  did  not  need  them.  The 
Indian  did  the   reserving   himself,  and  counted  his 

42 


The  Western  Boundary 

many  scalps  which  hung  drying  amidst  the  smoke 
of  his  own  rude  lodge. 

For  centuries  the  Portage  Path  was  one  of  the 
greatest  "carrying  places,,  in  the  "Ohio  Coun- 
try." 

The  giant  Eries  were  indigenous  to  the  soil. 
They  held  the  southern  shore  of  Lake  Erie  from 
Sandusky  to  Redstone  Old  Fort  in  Pennsylvania. 
They  were  the  makers  of  aboriginal  history,  and 
held  the"Five  Nations"  at  bay  until  the  latter  part 
of  the  17th  century.  Their  favorite  rivers  were  the 
Cuyahoga  and  Rocky.  Over  these  they  spread  a 
half-barbarian  civilization.  What  scenes  of  pomp 
and  splendor  were  here?  I  am  proud  to  be  a  citizen 
of  a  locality  where  so  much  has  been  accom- 
plished, not  only  in   ancient,    but  in  modern  times. 

The  history  of  England's  claiming  to  own 
territory  west  of  the  Ohio  is  somewhat  complex 
and  is  built  upon  a  tissue  of  lies.  It  was  made  by 
Sir  Wm.  Johnson,  her  somewhat  famous  Indian 
agent  for  her  North  American  possessions.  A  big- 
ger grafter  never  lived.  He  was  a  man  who  had 
much  to  conceal  and  he  rendered  England's  posi- 
tion more  complicated  by  assuring  her  Lords  of 
Trade  that  England  laid  claim  to  lands  as  far  west 
as  the  Mississippi,  b}'  reason  of  the  conquest 
by  his  auxiliaries,  the   Iroquois. 

The  facts  in  the  case  are,  that  De  Monts,  the 
father  of  Canada,  had  incurred  the  undying  hatred 
of  the  "Five  Nations",   who  first  threw  their  influ- 

43 


The  Western    Boundary 

ence  with  the  Dutch,  and  afterwards,  with  the 
English.  Johnson  had  just  stolen  some  40.000 
acres  of  good  land  and  some  one  had  to  get  busy 
in  order  to  direct  attention  in  other  directions;  so 
the  Five  Nations  were  sent  out  against  the  Miamis 
and  Shawnees  whom  they  drove  beyond  the  Mis- 
sissippi, thus  establishing  a  claim  to  the  soil 
which  was  but  short  lived,  as  we  shall  hereinafter 
show.  The  first  man  and  antiquarian  who  object- 
ed to  the  statement  of  Johnson  was  General 
William  Henr}'  Harrison,  who  took  issue  with  him 
and  in  an  address  before  the  Historical  Society  of 
Ohio,  in  1839.  After  reviewing  the  whole  mass  of 
proof  in  an  extremel}^  impartial  manner,  he  said 
that  "Without  any  reasonable  doubt,  the  pre- 
tensions of  the  Five  Nations  to  a  conquest  of  the 
country  from  the  Scioto  to  the  Mississppi  are  en- 
tirely groundless."  Since  his  time,  historical 
documents  in  plenty  have  come  to  hand  showing 
that  not  satisfied  with  their  former  foray,  they  at- 
tacked Starved  Rock,  on  which  at  that  time  was 
perched  Fort  St  Louis,  and  were  repulsed  with  a 
heavy  loss.  The  various  Illinois  tribes  assisted 
by  the  Miamis,  Ottawas,  Shawnees  and  Pottawat- 
omies,  drove  them  out  of  the  Ohio  Valle}^  never 
more  to  return  as  conquerors,  bent  on  conquest,  as 
they  never  made  an  effort  to  recover  the  territory 
from  which  they  were  driven  in  defeat  in  1684.  So 
much  for  Great  Britain's  claim  to  any  territor}' 
west  of  the    AUeghanies,    and    this    was  the  claim 

44 


The  Western    Boundary 

ceded     to  the   United   States  at  the  treat}-  of  Paris 
in  1783,  ninety-nine  3^ears  later. 

At  the  treaty  of  Paris,  Count  D'  Aranda,  a 
grandee  of  Spain,  appeared,  on  the  part  of  that 
kingdom,  before  the  commissioners  appointed  by 
England  and  the  United  States,  and  made  stren- 
ous  objections  to  our  commissioners  demanding 
that  the  boundarj-  line  be  fixed  at  the  Mississippi. 
He  claimed  the  countr}'  west  of  a  certain  line  pass- 
ing through  Ohio,  as  territorj'  held  by  Spanish 
arms.  In  this,  Spain  did  not  stand  alone,  for 
France  was  with  them  in  their  demands.  England 
hesitated  and  wavered,  finally  refusing  to  sign  and 
retiring  upon  her  dignit5^  Another  year  passed  by 
without  an}'  result;  then  England  agreed  to  make 
the  Ohio  river  the  western  boundar}'.  Spain  and 
France  demanded  a  diagonal  line  which  was  to  com- 
mence at  the  mouth  of  the  Great  Kanawha  river,  and 
to  run  northwesterly  to  the  west  end  of  Lake  Erie. 
This  line  was  to  run  just  west  of  the  present  Ohio 
counties  of  Huron  and  Erie,  and  commenced  263 
miles,  river  measurement,  below  Pittsburg.  To 
this  Mr.  Adams  objected,  demanding  that  the  line 
be  made  where  asked  for  by  the  American  com- 
missioners. Lo  was  not  heard  from,  he  was  too 
lowly  and  feeble  to  be  admitted  to  the  great  council 
of  mighty  nations;  he  had  been  robbed  b}'  all,  and 
his  remaining  possessions  were  to  be  wrested  from 
him  without  his  knowledge  or  consent.  Mr.  Adams 
fought  so  strenously    and   persistently   for  his  line 

45 


The  Western    Boundary 

that  after  the  second  year  had  gone  by  England 
slowl}'  and  reluctantly  conveyed  land  she  did  not 
own,  and  which  she  knew  she  did  not  own.  With 
the  exception  of  fixing  the  western  boundary  the 
treaty  had  been  ready  to  sign  since  early  in  1782. 

No  man,  no  corporation,  no  country,  can  cede 
land  legally  which  does  not  belong  to  him  or  them. 
The  land  in  question  belonged  to  the  poor  Indian 
in  fee  simple,  and  could  never  be  wrested  from 
him  except  by  might  or  purchase.  Neither  of 
these  conditions  had  England  ever  met;  nor 
had  she  ever  undertaken  any  civil  or  jurisdictional 
rights  in  the  territorv. 

The  poor  Indian  employed  no  lawyer  with  his 
moral  sense  of  right  and  wrong  blunted  because  he 
was  more  often  called  upon  to  defend  wrong  than 
right,  and  was  always  ready  to  sell  to  the  highest 
bidder.  Lo  was  no  linguist,  and  did  not  under- 
stand the  verbiage  of  the  English  language,  and  in 
signing  treaties  knew  not  what  he  was  signing,  ex- 
cept the  lines  of  the  land  he  was  conveying  and 
the  compensation  he  was  to  receive.  All  other  con- 
ditions and  provisos  to  him  were  null  and  void, 
and  would  not  stand  in  any  court  of  this  or  an}'^ 
other  civilized  land  in  which  graft  did  not  enter  as 
a  factor. 

The  whole  history  of  the  various  treaties  of 
the  United  States  with  the  natives  of  the  soil  has 
been  but  the  history  of  wrong,    avarice,   graft,   de~ 

46 


The  Western    Boundary 

ceit  and    fraud.      If    the  Indian   did  not    like    it  he 
could  repudiate — and  he  did. 

But  the  everlasting  infamy'  of  governmental 
effort  in  this  direction  has  resulted  in  staining  the 
escutcheon  of  American  Libert}'  a  deeper  d3'e. 


47 


Portage  Path 

The  Center  of  Indian  Communication 


Long  before  Lake  Erie  was  located  on  the 
map  of  the  world,  or  the  La  Belle  Riviere  known 
to  the  geographers  of  Europe,  many  decades  before 
the  Argonauts  of  civilization  had  penetrated  west- 
ward beyond  the  St  Lawrence,  great  aborigin- 
al highways  existed  connecting  the  distant  waters 
of  the  large  lakes  with  the  great  salt  sea,  and  with 
the  might}'  Mississippi,  the  father  of  all  living  riv- 
ers on  the  wild  American  continent. 

Journey  with  us  to  that  distant,  forest-clad 
land,  and  pass  over  with  us  some  of  these  ancient 
trails  that  push  their  winding,  tortuous  way 
by  the  banks  of  sedg3'  lakes,  across  wide  and 
swift  rivers,  or  else  following  the  early  conforma- 
tion of  the  shore  line  of  the  immense  fresh  water 
lakes,  or  striking  out  into  the  heart  of  the  wilder- 
ness for  hundreds  of  miles,  turning,  twisting  but 
ever  moving  forward  to  a  known  objective  point, 
without  loss  of  time. 

These  were  the  highways  of  that  restless,  ad- 
venturous, migratory  race  or  races  which  held  the 
country  by  virtue    of    original    possession.     Along 

48 


The  Center  of  Indian  Communication 


Indian  Communication 

these  routes  the}'  came  with  swift  and  tireless  feet, 
bent,  either  upon  the  delights  of  the  chase,  or  upon 
the  much-to-be-desired  war  of  the  race.  War 
brought  distinction,  made  mighty  chiefs,  furnished 
an  exercise  for  their  naturally  cruel  instincts, 
brought  plunder  and  pelf  and  profit;  abounded  in 
change  of  scene,  exciting  episodes  and  startling 
features.  Its  climaxes  were  not  always  pleasant  or 
desirable,  but  they  were  accepted  with  the  stoic 
philosophy  of  the  red  man  as  the  fortune  of  war. 

Along  these  lengthening  trails  came  and  went 
these  feather-bedecked,  sinister-painted,  wild  men 
of  the  forest.  Swiftl}^  surely,  without  noise  or 
bluster,  these  hyenas  of  the  wilderness  sped  on 
their  way  of  destruction. 

The  first  intimation  the  unsuspecting  whites 
had  of  their  presence  was  the  ringing  war  whoop, 
the  midnight  attack,  the  burning  cabin,  the  shrieks 
of  childish  terror, or  the  wail  of  female  despair.  The 
gride  of  the  hatchet,  the  echoing  scalp-yell,  the 
crack  of  the  rifle,  the  shout  of  defiance,  were  swift 
and  fleeting  episodes  of  the  great  drama  enacted 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  whole, 
wild,  western  border-land.  The  isolated  hamlet, 
or  the  lonely  cabin  home  despoiled,  the  lust  of 
blood  glutted,  and  hampered  with  prisoners,  or  else 
laden  with  plunder,  they  made  their  way  back  to 
secure  retreats  among  forest-embowered  and  dis- 
tant valleys.      Leaving  no  trail  on  these  hard-beat- 


49 


Indian  Communication 

en,  compact  roadway's,  the  forest  closed  upon  them 
and— they  were  gone. 

"One-half  the  terror  inspired  by  these  sudden 
fora3"S  was  due  to  the  fact  of  the  m3'stery,  the  si- 
lence, and  the  utter  impossibility  of  retaliation  or 
reprisal.  The  aboriginal  forests  opened  and  — thej' 
came.  They  opened  and — they  were  gone."  Mys- 
tic fear  and  horror  brooded  ever  on  the  early  steps 
of  the  pioneer  who  dared  to  assail  the  virgin  forests 
of  the  west,  and  endeavor  to  carve  from  out  its 
mysterious  silence,  a  wilderness  home. 

It  has  been  a  wonder  to  the  engineers  of  the 
modern  world  to  know  how  a  people  who  were  ap- 
parently deficient  of  engineering  skill  could  go  so 
straightly  and  surelj'  to  a  given  point  throughout  a 
country  fissured  with  ravines,  dotted  with  fresh 
water  lakes,  broken  with  swamps,  traversed  by 
mighty  rivers,  streams  and  rivulets,  and  the  whole 
covered  with  a  dense,  heav}^  primeval  forest 
growth. 

They  have  wondered  why  the  early  roadways  of 
the  whites,  and  the  railroads  of  today  generally  fol- 
low ancient  Indian  trails. 

They  have  wondered  how  these  "lords  to  the 
manor  born"  always  knew  the  best  springs,  the 
safest  fords,  the  driest  and  most  lovely  camping 
grounds,  and  the  securest  retreats.  But  this  was  a 
part  of  their  woodcraft,  a  matter  of  hereditary 
instinct  as  well  as  of  daily  practice. 

As  a  matter  of  policy  the   Indian    ceded  to  the 

50 


Indian  Communication 

British  in  1701  the  country  within  the  following 
described  limits,  old  l^nglish  spelling  and  all;  "a 
tract  of  land  lying  between  the  great  lake  Ottowa- 
wa  and  the  lake  called  by  the  natives  Sahiquage, 
and  by  the  Christians  Swege,  and  runns  till  it  butts 
upon  the  Twichtwichs,  and  is  bounded  by  a  place 
called  Ouadoge.  conteigning  in  length  about  Eight 
Hundred  miles  and  in  bredth  Four  Hundred  miles 
including  the  country  where  the  Bevers,  the  deers 
and  Elks  keep." 

It  is  in  this  section  that  we  propose  to  re- 
locate these  devious,  ancient  roadway's  of  a  great 
S3'stem.  Ouadoge  means  Chicago,  or  the  head  of 
Lake  Michigan:  Lake  Ottowawa  is  Lake  Huron, 
while  the  lake  "called  b_y  the  natives  Sahiquage, 
and  by  the  Christians  Swege,"  is  Lake  Erie. 

It  is  true  that  the  British  authorities  never 
laid  much  stress  upon  this  cession  of  territory, 
and  the  Indians  ever  after  claimed  it.  The  pur- 
pose for  which  the  treaty  was  made,  was  to  gain  a 
title  to  the  territorj'  in  order  to  prevent  the  French 
from  absorbing  the  whole  of  it  for  the  King  of 
France.  The  French,  however,  regarded  it  as 
fait  accompli. 

"The  countless  pads  of  innumerable  feet  had 
worn  the  soil  of  the  forest  over  which  ran  these 
wildwood  trails,  through  centuries  of  war  and 
chase,  into  the  semblance  of  hard-packed,,  well- 
worn  roadways,  that  had  a  fascination  all  their 
own.     The    narrow     tracks     winding     among    the 

51 


Indian  Communication 

forest  trees  and  curving  between  sloping  hill- 
sides, stretched  away  into  the  unknown  heart  of 
the  new  world.  When  settlers  came  they  still 
wound  their  way,  the  strangest  of  all  roads,  in 
some  places  a  foot  broad  and  thousands  of  miles 
in  length,  cut  in  places,  a  foot  below  the  surround- 
ing surface  by  restless  feet.  In  other  words  it 
widened  and  broadened  into  a  noble  highwaj'. 
These  great  national  highways  for  the  Indian 
nations  have  been  described  as  "beginning  no- 
where and  ending  in  the  same  place."  "This  may 
be  true  in  a  certain  sense,  as  they  so  intermingled 
and  ran  into  another,  crossed  and  re-crossed  each 
other,  that  to  a  white  man  they  seemed  but  threads 
of  a  devious  maze,  whose  tangled  ends  could  not 
be  found  by  mathematical  calculation;  5'et  the}' 
were  the  first  faint  harbingers  of  a  coming  civiliza- 
tion a  civilization  that  was  to  astonish  the  world 
with  its  virile  force,  and  as  such  possess  a  charm 
that  is  hard  to  analyze  or  express."  The  better 
known  of  these  ancient  highway's,  such  as 
"Nemacolin's  Path,"  or  the  old  "Bay  Path,"  have 
been  made  famous  in  song  and  story.  Alice 
Morse  Earle  has  written:  "l  feel  deeply  the  in- 
explicable charm  which  attaches  itself  to  these  old 
paths  or  trails.  I  have  ridden  hundreds  of  miles 
on  these  various  Indian  paths  and  I  ever  love  to 
trace  the  roadway  where  it  is  now  the  broad 
traveled  road,  and  where  it  turns  aside  in  an  over- 
grown and  narrow  lane  which  is  to-day  almost  as 

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Indian  Communication 

neglected  and  wild  as  the  old  path.  There  seems 
to  cling  to  it  something  of  the  human  interest  ever 
found  in  a  foot-path  across  a  pasture,  or  up  a 
wooded  hill,  full  of  charm,  suggestion,  of  senti- 
ment. ' '  Holland  has  also  written  of  this  subject  with 
loving  touch  when  he  said:  "The  path  led  through 
the  woods  which  bore  the  marks  of  centuries,  over 
barren  hills  that  had  been  licked  by  the  Indian's 
hounds  of  fire,  and  along  the  banks  of  streams 
that  the  seine  had  never  dragged."  Hulbert  has 
written:  "To  one  whose  imagination  is  grounded 
in  the  annals  of  those  early  days,  a  walk  on  one  of 
the  old  time  thoroughfares  is  a  glimpse  backward 
which  for  wildness  and  meaning  will  prove  of  more 
inspiration  than  a  year  spent  in  our  museums. 
The  story  of  these  various  highways,  their  build- 
ing and  their  fortune,  is  the  story  of  the  people 
who  have  and  who  do  now  inhabit  the  land.  The 
stud}^  of  them  is  an  important  story,  it  has  already 
been  too  long  neglected.  Every  road  has  a  story 
and  the  burden  of  every  stor}'  is  a  need.  The 
greater  a  need,  the  better  the  story  and  the  longer 
and  more  important  the  road." 

The  Great  National  Highwa}^  for  the  Indian 
nations  of  the  northern  part  of  the  country  com- 
menced at  Detroit  and  followed  down  the  western 
bank  of  that  river  until  it  struck  the  body  of  water 
variously  known  under  the  cryptic  names  of  the 
secretive  Indian,  and  the  no  less  secretive  early 
white   explorer,    as    Lake    Sahiquage,    and    Lake 


Indian  Communication 

Swege,  as  well  as  the  lake  of  the  Cat  as  used  by 
the  native,  and  as  Lake  Oswego,  and  finally  as 
Lac  Erius  of  the  early  French,  until  it  became 
crystalized  b}'  common  use  into  its  present  name 
of  Lake  Erie;  so  named  no  doubt  from  that  mystic 
band  of  savage  warriors  who  so  long  held  the  coun- 
try lying  south  of  the  shores  of  the  great  lake 
against  their  brethren  to  the  east  and  north. 
Following  the  shore  line  of  the  western  end  of 
this  lake,  it  came  rounding  along  until  it 
struck  the  Miami  of  the  lakes,  now  designated 
as  the  Maumee.  Crossing  this  stream  it  bore 
to  the  southeast,  closely  following  the  shore 
line,  where  practicable,  until  it  reached  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Sandusky  Ba_v,  when  turning 
nearly  south,  it  crossed  the  Sandusky  River,  and 
rounded  the  head  of  the  bay,  there-after  again 
following  the  shore  line  eastward.  This  was  An 
important  point.  Here  opened  a  water  highway 
for  canoe  travel,  which  reached  by  the  way  of 
Lake  Erie,  to  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  via  Buffalo 
Creek,  and  around  the  portage  at  Niagara.  Here 
too,  was  the  objective  point  of  one  of  the  "Ohio 
country's"  carrying  places  on  the  "Gulf  to  the 
Great  Lakes,"  route.  Here  too  ended  the  Pitts- 
burg and  Sandusky  southern  trail,  as  well  as  the 
Fort  Mcintosh  and  Sandusky  central  trail.  San- 
dusky was  one  of  the  points  at  which  all  trails 
centered;  from  thence  running  to  various  parts  in 
the  present  state  of  Ohio. 

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Indian  Communication 

It  is  not  the  province  of  this  article  to  follow 
the  course  of  all  these  trails,  but  only  such  as 
were  the  great  highways  of  travel  between  the  east 
and  west,  north  and  south.  The  Lake  Shore 
Trail  continued  eastwardly  from  Sandusky  but 
was  little  traveled  until  Presque  .Isle  was  reached, 
on  account  of  the  numerous  rivers  entering  the 
lake  between  these  points.  Six  large  streams 
flowed  into  the  lake  between  Sandusky  and  the 
present  site  of  Cleveland.  Nine  large  streams 
entered  the  lake  from  the  south  between  the  mouth 
of  the  Cuyahoga  and  Presque  Isle.  The  trail 
followed  the  curving  lines  of  the  lake  shore  until  it 
reached  the  mouth  of  Rocky  River,  to-day  some 
six  miles  west  of  Cleveland.  It  was  at  this  point 
that  the  flotilla  of  Gen.  Bradstreet,  with  his  300 
boats  and  twelve  hundred  men  came  to  an  untime- 
ly and  disastrous  end.  Driven  by  a  furious  lake 
storm  they  here  sought  a  port  and  were  driven  on 
the  high,  precipitous  rocks  of  the  shore  line.  That 
terrible  night  of  1764  has  written  its  bloody  record 
in  the  vicinity,  and  to  this  day  the  waves  of  the 
great  lake  yet  throw  up  sad  memorials  of  that  ex- 
pedition. The  few  wretched  survivors  were  obliged 
to  follow  the  winding  Indian  lake  shore  trail  to 
Niagara,  where  they  arrived  in  a  starved  and  quite 
exhausted  condition. 

From  here  the  trail  continued  eastward,  fol- 
lowing the  shore  line,  and  crossed  the  mouth  of 
the  Cuyahoga,  where   for   many  years  the  aborigi- 

55 


Indian  Communication 

nes  maintained  a  ferr}^  for  their  convenience.  It 
was  at  this  point  the  French  held  a  treaty  with  the 
Indian  tribes  in  1684.  If  we  are  to  believe  his 
geographer,  Joliet  came  to  this  point.  Then 
came  La  Salle  in  1679,  making  his  way  down  the 
Cuyahoga  to  the  Muskingum,  as  the  shortest,  the 
driest  and  most  solid  portage  on  the  "Gulf  to  the 
Great  Lakes"  which  was  located  at  the  end  of 
canoe  navigation  on  this  river.  Here  came  Major 
Rogers  and  300  British  soldiers  in  1760,  and  here, 
and  at  that  time,  Pontiac,  the  fire-brand  of  the 
west,  first  came  prominently  before  the  American 
people.  This  same  year  came  Geo.  Croghan,  the 
lieutenant  of  the  British,  Indian  agent  for  the 
British  colonies  of  North  America,  and  in  the 
succeeding  year  here  came  his  superior,  Sir  Wm, 
Johnson.  Continuing,  the  trail  led  to  the  lake  shore 
to  Conneaut  Creek,  where  came  Moses  Cleaveland 
with  his  51  surveyors  and  employees  in  1796.  It 
was  here  they  built  their  "castle",  and  it  was  here 
that  the  4th  of  July  was  celebrated  on  Ohio  soil, 
for  the  first  time.  These  rivers  all  had  sand  bars 
just  outside  their  mouths  on  which  crossing  could 
be  made  in  quiet  weather. 

From  this  point  the  trail  kept  on  to  Presque 
Isle,  now  Erie,  Pa.  On  the  baj'  at  this  place  the 
French  had  in  the  seventeenth  centur}'  built  a  fort 
of  "squared  chestnut  logs."  This  certainly  was 
unique  as  it  is  the  only  one  on  record.  Fifteen 
miles  south    of    this    place,    on    Lake    Petite,    the 

56 


Pictured  Tree  on  Path 


Indian  Communication 

source  of  the  "Riverie  Aux  Boeufs,"  lay  Fort  La 
Bceuf,  built  at  a  much  earlier  period  than  history- 
has  given  credit  for.  It  was  here  in  1753,  came 
George  Washington  and  Christopher  Gist,  and  as 
he  remained  several  daj's  he  may  have  visited  the 
Lake  Shore  trail.  From  this  point  the  trail  con- 
tinued to  Buffalo  Creek,  and  Niagara  the  scene  of 
one  of  the  earliest  and  most  sanguinary  of  tribal 
battles;  from  here  it  passed  over  the  Iroquois,  or 
Mohawk  Valle}'  trail,  as  it  has  been  variously 
called,  down  the  Mohawk  and  Hudson  valleys, 
taking  to  the  watershed  dividing  the  waters  be- 
tween the  lake  and  those  flowing,  into  the  Ohio  or 
its  tributaries. 

Radiating  from  Sandusky,  one  of  the  greatest 
historical  points  in  aboriginal  times,  were  two 
great  east  and  west  highways  which  led  to  Fort 
Pitt.  These  trails  followed  the  same  path  after 
leaving  this  point,  running  nearl}'  south  for  thirty 
miles,  closeh'  following  the  Huron  River,  and 
crossing  it  twice.  At  this  point  lay  the  army  of 
Gen.  Perkins  in  the  war  of  1812.  The  trail  di- 
vided at  the  remains  of  an  old  Ottawa  fort,  erected 
in  1704.  The  northern  branch,  called  the  central 
or  Mahoning  trail  by  the  natives,  and  the  San- 
dusky and  Fort  Mcintosh,  or  Sandusky  and  Fort 
Pitt,  or  Fort  Pitt  and  Detroit  trail  by  the  whites, 
was  the  most  direct,  the  shortest  by  40  miles,  and 
the  driest  of  all  east  and  west  trails,  as  it  followed 
closely    the    watershed  of    northern  Ohio    and   had 

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Indian  Communication 

but  two  rivers  to  cross  —  the  Cuyahoga  and  Mahon- 
ing, and  it  was  plentifully  sprinkled  with  living 
springs  of  soft,  pure  water.  It  ran  eastward  until 
it  crossed  the  Cuyahoga  at  Portage  Path.  At  this 
point  was  the  Indian  Cuyahoga  town.  Here,  dur- 
ing the  war  of  1812,  lay  an  army  of  occupation 
under  General  Wadsworth,  the  watch-dog  of 
northern  Ohio.  By  his  instructions  a  military 
road  was  finished  from  the  Cuyahoga  westward, 
along  the  trail  just  mentioned. 

Over  this  road  all  provisions,  munitions  of  war, 
ordnance  and  stores  designed  for  the  western  forts, 
and  the  army  of  Gen.  Harrison,  were  transported. 
It  cost  $100  per  barrel  for  flour  and  $1,000.00  per 
cannon  to  move  them  to  the  forks  of  the  Maumee. 
These  stores  came  from  the  mouth  of  the  Cuyahoga, 
or  the  present  site  of  Cleveland,  then  a  village  of 
less  than  150  inhabitants.  The  stores  were  loaded 
upon  narrow  flat-boats  propelled  by  oars  to  the 
"Upper  Headquarters,"  as  Gen.  Wadsworth's 
camp  was  then  called.  Here  during  the  war  hun- 
dreds of  teams  loaded  and  unloaded  each  day,  so 
great  was  the  river  traffic,  the  lake  then  being  held 
by  British  war  ships.  The  surveyors  who  platted 
the  eastern  half  of  Western  Reserve  in  1796-7,  had 
their  headquarters,  near  here,  and  they  too  called 
it  "Upper  Headquarters."  To  this  point  came  the 
murderous  Chief  George  and  his  band  of  bloody 
cut-throats,  only  waiting  for  favorable  news  from 
Tippecanoe    before   precipitating  themselves  upon 

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Indian  Communication 

the  defenceless  and  scattered  settlements  of  north- 
ern Ohio.  Over  this  trail  came  the  heroic  Geo. 
Croghan  and  his  gallant  defenders  of  the  immortal 
Fort  Stephenson:  And  last,  and  it  may  be  least, 
General  Lafaj'ette  passed  over  it  on  his  return  to 
America. 

Crossing  the  river,  the  trail  bore  slightly  north 
of  east,  to  the  fall  of  Hopaccon.  Here,  on  either 
bank  were  located  Indian  villages.  It  was  here, 
so  far  as  is  known,  that  the  first  white  female  cap- 
tives were  held  prisoners  within  the  present  limits 
of  the  Western  Reserve.  From  this  point  the 
trail  led  on  to  "Big  Spring",  now  within  the  limits 
of  Cuyahoga  Falls.  Near  here  Capt  Brady's  men 
were  ambushed  and  routed,  taking  the  back  trail 
for  Fort  Pitt  at  double  quick.  The  trail  continued 
in  the  same  eastwardly  direction  and  passed  Silver 
Lake  where  two  more  Indian  villages  were  situ- 
ated, and  then  ran  directl}^  for  Standing  Stone, 
now  Kent,  the  site  chosen  for  the  State  Normal 
School.  It  was  at  this  point  that  Brady  made  his 
celebrated  leap.  This  point  was  named  by  the 
Indians  from  the  fact  that  a  rugged,  lonely,  solita- 
ry column  of  rock  stood  in  the  center  of  the 
Cuyahoga  River,  on  the  summit  of  which  grew  a 
single,  ragged  pine.  Before  reaching  this  point, 
at  Fish  Creek,  the  trail  divided,  one  branch  run- 
ning northwest  to  the  Mingo,  Ottawa  and  Seneca 
villages  on  the  upper  Cuyahoga;  it  crossed  to  west 
side  of  the  Cuyahoga  at  Tinker's    Creek,    some  14 

59 


Indian  Communication 

miles  north  of  its  southern  crossing,  where  were 
the  remains  of  an  ancient  Indian  village  and  of  the 
old  Moravian  settlements  Thence  it  continued 
down  the  west  bank  until  the  mouth  of  the  river 
was  reached.  Over  this  trail  in  1787,  came  im- 
mense pack  trains  loaded  with  flour  from  Pitts- 
burg to  the  British  garrisons  at  Detroit  and  to  the 
west.  The  flour  was  taken  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Cuj'ahoga  by  the  military'  schooner  "Mackinaw" 
to  its  destination.  These  pack  trains  were  in 
charge  of  Col.  Hillman,  who  afterwards  settled  in 
the  Reserve.  Ninety  to  120  horses  and  ten  drivers 
usually  composed  the  train.  After  leaving  Fish 
Creek,  one  mile  east  of  Stow  Corners,  the  com- 
bined trails  crossed  Break-Neck  Creek,  and  on  up 
its  valle}',  crossing  the  "Summit"  near  Ravenna, 
it  passed  the  "Salt  Springs"  of  the  Mahoning,  and 
crossed  this  river  three  miles  above  Youngstown, 
then  Mahoning  Town,  and  kept  down  the  north 
bank  to  its  Junction  with  the  Beaver  River;  thence 
down  that  stream  to  the  present  site  of  Beaver, 
on  the  south  side  of  the  Mahoning,  where  the 
Shenango  River  forms  a  junction  with  that  stream, 
was  the  Indian  Kithknike  Town.  From  here  a 
trail  led  to  Beaver,  on  the  south  side  of  the  river, 
and  another  ran  north-east  through  the  Indian 
towns  of  Shamingo  and  Pemtuing,  and  led  to  Fort 
Venango. 

At  Beaver,   the  Presque  Isle  trail,  the  Central, 
the  Southern,  the  Scioto,    the    Kithknike   trails    all 

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Indian  Communication 

joined,  forming  one  trail  into  Pittsburg, commencing 
across  the  river  at  Fort  Mcintosh. 

The  Central  trail  crossing  the  commencement 
of  Portage  Path,  was  fully  -^-0  miles  shorter  than 
any  other  east  and  west  trail  between  Pittsburg, 
Sandusky  and  Detroit.  It  was  drier,  better,  safer, 
and  well  watered  by  living  springs.  It  ran  nearl}^ 
all  the  distance  along  the  high  ground  of  the  wa- 
tershed. The  townships  along  the  eastern  half  of 
this  route  were  settled  in  the  eighteenth  centur}^ 
but  for  20  years  thereafter  bands  of  Indians  passed 
along  this  path.  The  early  whites  found  pictured 
trees,  and  huge  cairns  of  stones  along  this  abori- 
ginal roadwa}'. 

The  Southern  trail,  after  it  left  the  old  Ottawa 
fort  on  the  Huron,  ran  southeast,  crossing  the 
Walhonding  river,  then  known  as  the  White  Wo- 
man's river,  from  the  white  woman  who  lived  at 
White  Woman's  town,  on  White  Woman's  river. 
It  passed  through  Mohican  John's  town,  and  af- 
ter leaving  this  place  the  trail  bent  slightl}^  north 
of  east  for  about  20  miles,  passing  through  the 
Delaware  villages  of  Ashland  County,  the  beautiful 
village  of  Greentown,  the  sad  scene  of  white  man's 
perfidy  and  dishonor;  and  the  notorious  and  oft 
quoted  "Hell  Town,"  and  on,  until  it  crossed  the 
Little  Muskingum  river,  now  called  the  Tuscara- 
was, at  its  Junction  with  the  Big  Sandy,  Thus  it 
passed  through  the  unfortunate  Moravian  towns, 
the  scene  of  Ohio's  deepest,  darkest,  and  bloodiest 

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Indian  Communication 

shame.  It  was  here  the  first  sermon  was  preached 
by  a  white  man  in  the  Northwestern  territory,  where 
the  first  white  child  was  born,  and  where  the  first 
church  bell  rang  out  its  summons  to  a  sin-laden 
world. 

From  here  the  trail  either  went  directly  to,  or 
branched,  to  the  Indian  towns  of  Beaver,  Tuscaro- 
ra,  Killbucks  town,  and  from  here  it  bore,  first 
southeast,  then  northeast,  passing  through  Shin- 
goes  town  and  crossing.  Yellow  Creek  at  whose 
mouth  Logan  lost  all  his  relatives  through  the  in- 
human cruelty  of  the  Indian  hunters  of  the  upper 
Ohio:  swept  on  and  crossed  the  Beaver  and 
reached  the  Ohio  opposite  Fort  Mcintosh,  the 
Beaver,  Pa.,  of  to-da}'.  This  southern  trail  was 
some  forty  miles  longer  than  the  more  northern 
route,  and  was  more  traveled  and  better  known  as 
it  reached  many  important  Indian  towns  on  the 
Tuscarawas  and  upper  Muskingum,  the  Mohican 
and  Walhonding. 

After  crossing  Yellow  Creek,  this  path  made  a 
junction  with  the  great  Fort  Pitt  and  Scioto  trail; 
both  from  this  point  making  a  single  trail  to  Fort 
Pitt,  via  Fort  Mcintosh.  From  the  Yellow  Creek 
junction  the  Scioto  trail  bore  directly  southwest, 
crossing  the  Walhonding  at  New  Town  and  strik- 
ing the  Scioto  at  upper  Shawnee  town,  a  distance 
of  190  miles  from  Fort  Mcintosh.  On  this  route, 
on  the  west  bank  of  the  Tuscarawas,  a  short  dis- 
tance below  the  junction  of  the  Big  Sandy  with  this 

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Indian  Communication 

stream,  was  built  the  first  parapet  and  stockade 
fort  ever  erected  within  the  present  limits  of  the 
State  of  Ohio.  This  was  Fort  Lawrens,  and  its 
designer  and  builder  was  General  Lachlin  Mc- 
intosh, the  commander  of  the  Western  Military 
Department.  He  will  be  remembered  as  killing 
the  Hon.  Button  Gwinnet,  in  a  duel  fought  in 
1777.  Gwinnett  was  a  signer  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence. 

In  1778,  Gen.  Mcintosh  with  1,000  men  left 
Fort  Pitt.  His  original  intention  was  to  march 
his  army  to  Detroit.  He  pushed  boldly  out  into 
the  unbroken  forest.  With  so  much  secrecy  was 
his  army  raised,  and  so  quickly  did  they  move 
through  the  Indian  country,  that  the  savages  were 
not  aware  of  his  presence  until  he  had  completed 
the  fort.  After  garrisoning  and  provisioning  it, 
he  fell  back  with  his  force  to  Fort  Pitt.  The  post 
was  besieged  nearly  all  winter  by  the  Indians. 
After  several  massacres,  and  ambushes,  and  many 
romantic  and  hair-raising  episodes,  the  garrison 
evacuated  the  place. 

The  remaining  earthworks  were  entirely  oblit- 
erated in  1826  by  the  building  of  the  Ohio  canal. 
Mcintosh  undoubtedly  followed  Bouquet's  line  of 
march,  when  in  1764  he  cut  a  wide  swath  through 
the  forest  from  Fort  Mcintosh  to  this  point,  rescu- 
ing the  white  prisoners  held  in  captivity  by  the  dif- 
erent  Indian  tribes  of  the  Ohio  valley. 


63 


Indian  Communication 

This  trail  also  passed  through  the  important 
Indian  towns  of  Wauktaunkee  town,  Three  Legs 
old  town,  old  Wyandot  town,  Bullets  town,  Tom's 
town,  and  the  before-mentioned  Newcomers  town. 
It  passed  near  but  not  through  the  Pickaway 
towns. 

At  upper  Shawneetown  a  trail  ran  directly 
east,  seventy  miles,  to  Muskingum  river,  nearh' 
following  the  present  National  road.  Another  trail 
ran  from  this  town,  west  of  north  via  the  "San- 
dusky plains"  and  upper  Sandusky,  (Fremont) 
one  hundred  and  seventy  miles,  striking  the  "Mi- 
ami of  the  lakes"  at  the  junction  of  the  Auglaize 
and  Maumee  rivers  where  old  Fort  Minnis  stood. 

Before  reaching  upper  Shawnee  town  the 
Scioto  trail  passed  through  a  localit}^  that  has  held 
much  to  interest  the  antiquarian  and  archaeolo- 
gist. South  of  the  trail  lay  an  ancient  walled  city, 
whose  earthworks,  earthen  walls,  circles,  squares, 
parallelograms,  semi-circles,  covered  ways  and 
mounds  spread  over  some  five  square  miles  of  ter- 
ritory, are  emphaticall3'  suggestive  of  the  long, 
m3'steTious  past  of  our  country's  histor}'. 

Commencing  at  a  point  on  the  upper  Shawnee 
and  Fort  Minnis  trail,  about  30  miles  south  of  up- 
per Sandusky,  the  Scioto  and  Cuyahoga  war  trail 
ran  a  little  north  of  east  some  72  miles  to  Hell 
town,  thence  directl}'  northeast  as  straight  as  a 
bird  could  fly,  to  the  Portage  Path  and  the  Cuy- 
ahoga valley. 

64 


Indian  Communication 

Returning  to  the  lake  shore  we  find  another 
trail  leaving  Presque  Isle,  running  due  south  fif- 
teen miles  to  Fort  Le  Boeuf,  on  Lake  Petite,  the 
source  of  Riverie  Aux  Boeufs,  of  the  early  French. 
Geo.  Croghan,  Sir  Wm.  Johnson's  lieutenant,  field 
agent  and  Indian  agent  came  here  in  1760.  In 
1753.  George  Washington,  then  Colonel  of  Vir- 
ginian troops,  was  sent  here  on  a  mission  by  the 
Colonial  authorities.  He  remained  three  days  and 
conferred  with  Le  Gardeur  de  St.  Pierre,  the 
commandant  of  the  French  fort.  Mr.  Clayton,  of 
Virginia,  in  a  letter  to  the  Ro\'al  Society  of  Eng- 
land, bearing  date  of  Aug.  17,  1668,  speaks  of  this 
river  and  lake  and  infers  a  much  earlier  settlement 
than  history  states.  In  the  light  of  to-day's  know- 
ledge it  is  mighty  interesting  reading.  The  first 
English  map  in  which  even  Lake  Erie  is  laid  down 
is  Morden's  "New  Map  of  the  English  Plantations 
in  America."  This  map  gives  the  name  of  the 
lake  as  'Felis  Lake,"  or  in  other  words  the  "Lake 
of  the  Cat."  Overtons  "New  Map  of  America," 
issued  in  1740,  places  lakes  Huron,  Ontarius  and 
Erius  directly  south  of  each  other.  In  1756, 
Popple's  "A  Map  of  the  British  Empire  in  Ameri- 
ca," shows  La  Riverie  Aux  Bceufs,  yet  knows  no 
Monongahela  or  Kanawha. 

From  Fort  Le  Boeuf  the  trail  ran  nearl_v  south 
through  Pennsylvania,  some  one  hundred  and 
twenty  miles  to  Fort  Pitt. 


65 


Indian  Communication 

From  IMohican  John's  town,  the  point  45 
miles  south  of  Sandusk)'-,  where  the  southern  east 
and  west  trail  turned  east,  another  trail  bearing 
west  of  south,  led  down  the  west  side  of  White 
Woman's  river  to  Owl's  Town,  on  the  big  bend 
of  that  stream.  From  here  it  continued  in  the 
same  direction  to  Lick-town,  on  the  upper  waters 
of  the  Scioto;  and  then  down  the  west  side  of  the 
river,  passing  the  town  of  Circleville,  where  stood 
a  series  of  ancient  works.  In  1815,  these  works  of 
a  lost  race  were  in  a  fair  state  of  preservation. 
They  consisted  of  circular  and  square  earthworks, 
connected  by  a  gateway.  The  circular  work  was 
double  walled,  with  a  ditch  between  its  inner  and 
outer  wall.  The  walls  at  that  time  were  about 
twenty  feet  high  and  sixty-nine  rods  in  diameter. 
Opposite  the  gateway  leading  into  the  square 
works  was  a  semi-circular  work,  obviously  for 
guarding  the  entrance.  The  square  was  fifty-five 
rods  from  side  to  side,  with  walls  ten  feet  in 
height. 

The  trail  then  continued  down  the  river  to 
Lower  Shawnee  town  at  the  junction  of  the  Scioto 
with  the  Ohio. 

From  old  Fort  Minnis,  at  the  junction  of  the 
Maumee  and  Auglaize,  this  trail  ran  northwest 
through  Ohio  and  Indiana,  branching  just  south  of 
St.  Joseph  river.  The  southern  branch  twisted 
southward  and  led  on  to  the  Illinois  river,  and  by 
that    stream    to     the    mighty    Mississippi.        The 

66 


Indian  Communication 

northern  branch  led  in  the  shortest  way  to  the 
head  of  Lake  Michigan,  and  from  the  time  of  the 
Jesuits,  to  Fort  Chicago.  It  rounded  the  lake,  pas- 
sing on  its  way  the  present  site  of  Milwaukee; 
thence  bearing  in  a  crooked,  although  northwester- 
ly' direction,  it  pushed  its  way  on  to  old  Fort 
Winnebago,  on  the  Wisconsin  river.  This  not  on- 
ly opened  the  way  to  the  great  unknown  northwest, 
but  also  to  the  better  known  and  more  hospitable 
southwest,  the  Mississippi  and  all  its  branches,  as 
well  as  to  the  gulf  countr3\ 

From  Fort  Pitt  east,  the  route  was  either  by 
"Xemacolin's  Path,"  by  Fort  Bird,  afterwards 
"Redstone  Old  Fort,"  over  the  Laurel  Hills,  to 
Fort  Cumberland,  at  the  head  of  canoe  navigation 
on  the  Potomac,  the  route  that  Washington  fol- 
lowed; or  else  b.v  the  old  George  Forbes  road,  past 
the  later  Forts  Ligonier,  Bedford,  Lyttleton  and 
London,  and  down  the  Susquehanna. 

About  half-wa}'  between  the  Pennsylvania  line 
and  Sandusk}^  and  about  half-way  between  Lake 
Erie  and  the  Muskingum  Indian  towns  lay  Portage 
Path,  the  center  of  Indian  communication;  not 
only  for  the  "Ohio  country,"  but  for  the  great 
west,  the  trans-Mississippi  valley.  It  is  best  to 
understand  in  the  start  that  "the  Ohio  country" 
furnished  but  three  portages  on  "the  Gulf  to  the 
Great  Lakes  Route;"  that  of  these  three,  the  Port- 
age Path  was  the  most  central,  best  known,  the 
easiest,    shortest,    driest;    possessed    more    living 

67 


Indian  Communication 

springs  along  its  route,  and  more  pleasant,  secure 
and  dry  camping  grounds;  also  that  it  was  '  the 
country  where  beaver,  deer  and  the  elks  keep," 
was  on  its  southern  end,  well  lined  with  numerous 
fresh  water  lakes,  containing  savory  fish  and  in- 
habited by  aquatic  fowl;  was  in  fact  a  genuine 
hunter's  paradise. 

The  "carrying  place"  on  the  west  was  some 
sixteen  miles  long,  and  almost  every  foot  on  low, 
wet  and  swampy  grounds;  the  rivers  small  and  but 
little  known,  the  hunting  poor,  and  the  camping 
grounds  few  and  far  between.  Almost  the  same 
objection  would  apply  to  "carrying  place"  on  the 
east,  it  being  fifteen  miles  long,  and  but  little 
known  except  to  the  wild  tribes  of  the  Keystone 
state;  but  the  Portage  Path  with  half  the  carrying 
distance  was  every  foot  on  dry  and  solid  ground, 
and  reached  nearly  to  the  41st  degree  of  north  lat- 
titude,  the  "Water-shed"  of  the  "Ohio  Country, 
around  which  clustered  64  fresh  water  lakes,  many 
of  whose  bottoms  are  lower  than  that  of  Lake  Erie. 
Less  than  half  a  day's  travel  by  Indian  runner, 
from  Portage  Path,  the  Lake  Shore  trail  crossed 
the  mouth  of  the  Cuyahoga,  giving  communication 
to  Conneaut,  Presque  Isle,  Buffalo  Creek,  Niagara 
and  all  points  east,  and  to  Rocky  river.  Black 
river,  Sandusky,  Detroit  and  all  points  west.  A 
day's  travel  by  Indian  runner  from  Portage  Path 
would  communicate  with  all  the  Tuscarawas  and 
Muskingum    towns,    or    over  the  central,    east  and 

68 


Indian  Communication 

west  trail  with  Fort  Mcintosh  and  the  Mahoning 
and  Beaver  Valley  towns,  to  the  east,  or  with  the 
Sandusky  plains  to  the  west.  Over  the  great  Scio- 
to war  trail  which  started  from  the  Portage  Path 
the  Indian  towns  in  Wa^me,  Ashland  and  Richland 
counties  could  have  been  reached  in  short  order, 
sweeping  clean  the  Chippewa,  Killbuck  and  Mo- 
hican valle\'S. 

In  about  equal  distances  from  the  central  east 
and  west  Indian  trail  which  crossed  the  Cu3'ahoga 
at  the  northern  end  of  Portage  Path,  the  Lake 
shore  trail  crossed  the  mouth  of  the  Cuyahoga, 
while  the  southern  east  and  west  trail  crossed  the 
Tuscarawas  near  Bolivar.  Both  of  these  rivers 
take  their  source  from  the  same  locality — one  runs 
north,  the  other  south,  both,  in  a  time  beyond  the 
ken  of  man,  were  one  river,  running  south  and 
emptying  its  waters  into  the  Gulf.  One  of  the 
branches  of  the  Cuyahoga  has  its  head  in  Summit 
Lake;  this  also  is  the  source  of  one  branch  of  the 
Tuscarawas.  Another  branch  of  the  Cuyahoga 
has  its  head  in  Springfield  Lake,  seven  hundred 
feet  above  Lake  Erie;  still  another  takes  its  course 
from  Fritche's  Lake,  still  another  takes  its  course 
from  Whyoga  Lake,  truly  a  lake  river  as  the  In- 
dians named  it;  rising  in  lakes,  it  flows  through  the 
bed  of  an  ancient  geological  lake,  some  twenty-five 
miles  long,  and  empties  its  waters  in  a  lake.  We 
are  thus  particular  on  this  point  as  it  bears  largely 
on    the    aboriginal  history    of  the  country.     These 

69 


Indian  Communication 

rivers  taken  together,  furnished  the  red  races  a 
great  water  highway  extending  from  Lake  Erie  to 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  Over  this  portage  came  the 
"Laughing  Water"  of  the  Massaugas  and  her 
Irish  lover  to  their  death.  The  northern  end  of 
Portage  Path  was  for  many  3'ears  the  scene  of 
great  activity.  At  this  point  were  built  three  of 
Perr3''s  war  vessels  that  engaged  the  British  dur- 
ing the  famous  naval  battle  upon  Lake  Erie;  here, 
too,  during  the  war  of  1812  lay  Gen,  Wadsworth's 
army  of  occupation  and  in  pioneer  times  this  was 
the  end  of  flat  boat  navigation  on  the  "crooked 
river." 

Long  before  the  Northwestern  Territor}'  took 
form  or  shape  Thomas  Jefferson  and  George 
Washington  were  deeply  interested  in  building  a 
ship  canal  here  to  unite  the  Cuyahoga  with  the 
Tuscarawas.  The  Portage  Path  was  four  times 
made  the  subject  of  Indian  treat}'  and  its  lands 
were  three  times  paid  for  and  it  was  three  times 
made  the  western  boundary  of  the  United  States, 
standing  thus  until  1805.  This  north  and  south 
aboriginal  highway  was  also  the  central  one,  con- 
necting three  east  and  west  routes.  The  eastern 
north  and  south  trail  ran  from  Presque  Isle  to  the 
Scioto  River;  the  western  north  and  south  trail 
ran  from  Sandusky  to  the  Scioto.  The  central 
north  and  south  route  connected  with  all  the 
others.  It  had  a  great  land  highwa}'  leaving 
Portage  Path    near    its    center,    where   Akron  now 

70 


Indian  Communication 

stands,  and  running  i6o  miles  southwest  connected 
with  the  eastern  route  from  Presque  Isle,  and  the 
western  route  from  Sandusk3\  All  of  these  trails 
had  their  termini  at  Upper  Shawnee  Town  on  the 
Scioto,  thus  completing  a  sj'^stem  of  three  great 
aboriginal  highwas'S  both  east  and  west,  north  and 
south,  connected  at  regular  intervals. 

This  S3'stem  had  four  great  centers;  Pittsburg, 
Portage  Path,  Sandusk}'  and  Upper  Shawnee 
Town. 

Captain  Pipe,  the  craft}-,  the  cruel;  king  of 
New  Portage,  of  the  Wolf  clan  of  the  Delawares, 
the  whilom  king  of  the  entire  Delaware  nation,  had 
his  chief  village  at  the  southern  end  of  Portage 
Path,  between  the  different  Indian  trails  and  with- 
in a  few  da^'s  reach  of  an\"  point  or  points  of  the 
great  aboriginal  highway's  in  this  grand  S3'stem  of 
war  trails  by  which  the  territory  of  seven  states  was 
reached. 

For  some  reason  unknown,  the  Indian  fighters 
of  colonial  and  pre-colonial  days,  as  well  as  latter 
da}'  historians,  have  overlooked  the  importance  of 
the  Cuyahoga  valley  as  a  prime  factor  in  Indian 
wars  until  as  late  as  1794.  The  Delawares  came 
into  the  valle}'  as  early  as  1756.  Chief 
Xetawtwees  with  his  tribe  came  from  Kittanning, 
Pa.,  in  that  year,  and  built  his  village  on  the  north 
bank  of  the  Cuyahoga  at  "Big  Falls."  Previous 
to  this  there  was  an  Iroquois  village  on  the  south 
bank,    across    the    falls.     Evan's    map    of    1755, 

71 


Indian  Communication 

shows  a  Mingo,  Ottawa  and  Seneca  village  on  the 
stream  as  well  as  a  French  trading  house.  But 
long  before  this,  the  precipitous  sides  of  the  valley 
were  crowned  with  huge  earthworks  of  many  and 
peculiar  shapes.  It  is  true  that  the  square  and 
the  circle  and  parallel  walls  were  predominant 
forms,  3'et,  there  were  others,  indefinable  forms 
which  hemmed  in  inaccessible  heights  and  pla- 
teaus, narrow  promontories  putting  out  into  the 
valley. 

Further  up  the  river  were  pictured  rocks, 
which  through  the  writings  of  Colonel  Charles 
Whittlesey  have  stirred  the  pulse  of  the  scientific 
world  to  a  faster  pace.  Along  the  Portage  Path, 
and  at  both  ends  were  Indian  villages;  while  along 
the  trail  were  found  pictured  trees,  yet  seen  at  the 
time  of  the  original  surve\\  This  valley  at  one 
time  contained  fully  a  thousand  warriors;  two 
villages  alone  numbered  five  hundred.  Compare 
this  with  the  earlj'  population  of  any  given  point 
within  the  limits  of  the  Northwestern  Territorjs 
and  3'ou  will  at  once  see  that  with  the  exception  of 
"Fort  Du  Droit,"  it  held  the  largest  aboriginal 
population  to  the  square  mile.  August  7,  1757, 
Treedyuscung,  King  of  the  Delaware  nation,  and 
arbitrator  of  ten  different  tribes,  at  the  close  of  a 
treaty  held  at  Easton,  Pa.,  said  to  George 
Croghan:  "We  have  now  finished;  the  treat}'  is 
over,  peace  is  confirmed,  and  I  told  3'ou  that  I 
thought  of  going    to    Philadelphia,    but  upon  con- 


Indian  Communication 

sidering  the  matter  with  more  attention,  I  think  it 
will  be  more  for  the  public  service  to  proceed  im- 
mediately to  Diahoga,  and  proclaim  there  to 
nations  still  more  distant  the  confirmation  of  the 
peace  with  our  brethren,  the  English.  This  will 
take  up  three  or  four  months." 

Indian  tribes  pronounced  Cuyahoga  different- 
I3'.  The  Delaware  name  for  the  river  was 
Diohoga.  Fernow,  in  his  second  map,  calls  it 
Diohoga.  This  map  was  published  in  1754.  In 
his  first  map,  published  in  1684,  seventy  years 
earlier,  he  calls  it  Kaj'ahoge.  Hawkins  in  his 
map  of  1777,  calls  it  Canahogue,  while  Bowen  and 
Gibson,  in  their  map  published  in  1763,  named  it 
Guahago.  Evan's  in  1755,  Jeffries  in  1758, 
Hutchinson  in  1764,  and  Andrews  in  1783,  all 
name  it  "Cayahoga". 

George  Croghan  in  his  journal  bearing  date 
of  July  19,  1757,  says:  "I  understand  it  is  the  lake 
Indians  that  are  annoying  the  frontiers  at  present, 
with  perhaps  one  or  two  Delawares  with  each 
party."  Sir  William  Johnson,  British  Indian 
agent  for  North  America,  at  this  time  informed  the 
British  Lords  of  Trade  that  the  warriors  of  the 
different  nations  were  distributed  as  follows: 

Michilmacinac — 

Ottawas,  300 

Chippewas,  320 

Other  tribes,  400 


73 


Indian  Communication 

Scioto  River  and  Branches — 

Shawnees,  300 

Susquehanna,  Muskingum,  Tuscarawas, 
thence  to  Lake  Erie — 

Delawares,  600 

Sandusky  Fort,  near  Lake  Erie — 
Wyandots,  200 

Detroit — 

Wyandots,  400 

Pottowattomies,  200 

Ottawas,  300 

This  estimate  of  Johnson's  falls  over  6000 
short,  but  he  admits  that  there  are  many  he  has 
not  located.  He  makes  no  mention  of  the  Chip- 
pewas,  Massaugas,  Mingoes,  Shawnees,  Wyan- 
dots, Ottawas,  Senecas  and  Pottawattomies  of  the 
Lake  region. 

Had  the  early  whites  thoroughh^  understood 
this  system  of  Indian  highways  with  their  various 
centers  of  communication,  the  massacre  of  Mor- 
avian Indians  would  never  have  occurred.  The 
Indian  war  of  nearl3'  30  years  bloody  duration 
would  possibly  have  ended  in  two  or  three.  Thou- 
sands  of  valuable  lives  would  have  been  saved  to 
their  country  and  friends.  Millions  in  property 
would  have  been  undestroyed;  hundreds  of  cabin 
homes  and  lonely  hamlets  would  have  remained 
unburned;  civilization  would  have  come  earlier  in 
the  great  Northwestern  Territory,  and  the  material 
resources  of  the  boundless    west  would  have  soon- 

74 


Indian  Communication 

er    budded,  blossomed,  and    borne    fruit,  and    our 
history  would  not  have  been  written  in  blood. 

It  is  not  generally  known,  but  the  British  Par- 
liament in  1774  passed  an  act  making  the  Ohio 
River  the  southwestern,  and  the  Mississippi  the 
western  boundary  of  Canada,  attaching  it  to  the 
Province  of  Quebec;  but  for  jurisdictional  purpos- 
es the  territory  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  Colony 
of  Virginia,  its  Royal  Governor  being  Lord  Dun- 
more,  who  afterwards  burned  Norfolk,  escaped  to 
an  English  ship  and  sailed  across  the  sea. 

From  Portage  Path,  the  Cuyahoga  valley, 
Pittsburg,  Beaver,  Fort  Mcintosh,  Fort  Le  Bceuf, 
Detroit,  Sandusky,  Fort  Miami,  the  Tuscarawas 
and  Muskingum  towns,  and  upper  and  lower  Shaw- 
nee Towns,  trails  spread  out,  fan-like,  to  Indian 
villages,  secure  retreats,  choice  hunting  grounds, 
fresh  water  lakes,  and  other  local  points;  as  manj'' 
and  as  varied  as  the  veins  in  the  human  bod3\ 

General  William  Henry  Harrison  was  the  first 
white  man  and  Indian  fighter  who  understood  this 
great  system  of  communication.  Ever^'  stream 
was  a  much  prized  highway,  and  the  trails  raa  in 
every  direction.  He  proceeded  accordingly. 
Troops  were  stationed  at  Pittsburg  and  Beaver, 
An  army  lay  at  the  Falls  of  Maumee,  at  or  niar 
Sandusky,  and  at  the  northern  terminus  of  Portage 
Path.  Thus  the  communication  of  the  savages 
was  cut,  their  plans  were  disarranged,  their  high- 
ways   were    shut,    their    secret   fastnesses    closed, 

75 


Indian  Communication 

their  ardor  dampened.  In  this  peculiar  condition 
of  affairs  they  flew  for  protection  to  the  frowning 
walls  of  British  fortresses,  or  sought  refuge  in 
England's  armies.  They  were  cut  off  in  detail, 
not  only  whipped  time  and  time  again,  but  con- 
quered, cowed,  annihilated,  so  far  as  ever  again 
being  a  factor  of  evil  in  the  Ohio  valley. 

All  hail    to    Portage    Path!    great  in  the    daj^s 
which  have  gone  b}',  thj^  memories  shall  never  die. 


76 


«fp 


Sljiliu-  (<>  .IdIiii    Brown,  of  Ossow  atoiiiit 
on  I'orliifjc  I'iidi 


An  Historic  Path:  A  Movement  to  Mark 
It  in  a  Suitable  Manner  is  Started 


Closely  following  my  appeal  to  the  honor  of 
Summit  Count}^  citizens,  published  in  the  Akron 
''Daily  Beacon- Journal,'"  under  date  of  Nov. 
28,  1903,  that  same  Journal  published,  under  the 
above  heading,  the  following  article  which  by  per- 
mission I  reproduce  here: 

"A  conference  between  Count}^  Surveyor  J.  A. 
Gehres  and  City  Engineer  Payne  was  held 
Wednesday  morning  after  other  county  officials 
had  been  consulted,  and  it  was  definitely  decided 
that  steps  should  be  taken  to  ask  the  state  legis- 
lature, through  Representative  Wm.Buchtel,to  ap- 
propriate mone}^  for  a  complete  survey  of  Portage 
Path,  and  to  erect  monuments  and  markers  along 
the  famous  route." 

"There  was  some  talk  of  having  the  work 
done  b\^  local  support,  but  it  was  decided  that  in- 
asmuch as  the  path  is  not  only  of  local  and  state 
importance,  but  also  has  a  national  significance, 
state  aid  at  least  should  be  asked  to  establish  the 
lines  of  the  historical  route,  and  to  place  proper 
monuments  at  conspicuous  points  along  the  road. 
It  has  been  estimated  by  County  Survej'or  Gehres 

77 


An  Historic  Path 

and  others  interested  in  the  project  that  $2,500 
will  be  sufficent  to  cover  the  expense  of  the  surve}'' 
and  to  suppl}'  the  monuments.  It  is  proposed  to 
ask  power  to  surve}^  the  road  its  entire  length 
and  to  establish  its  lines  and  mark  them  so  that 
they  will  ever  be  distinguishable." 

"The  plan  contemplates  the  erection  of  pro- 
bably seven  life-size  statues  of  Indians,  to  be 
located  at  the  following  points:  three  in  Perkins 
Park,  one  on  West  Market  street,  one  near  Sum- 
mit lake,  and  one  at  each  end  of  the  path." 

"The  path  begins  at  a  point  on  the  Cuyahoga 
river  near  Old  Portage,  and  continues  southeast- 
wardly  through  the  western  and  southwestern 
parts  of  the  city  to  a  point  near  the  canal  feeder 
near  Long  lake.  A  road  follows  the  path  nearly 
the  entire  length,   but  in  a  general  direction  only. 

It  will  not  be  difficult  to  outline  the  exact 
boundary  of  the  path,  and  it  should  be  done  be- 
cause of  the  local  and  national  significance  of  the 
route,  as  followed  by  the  American  Indians  for 
3'ears  before  the  whites  came  into  the  country. 
The  line  was  at  one  time  the  western  boundary  of 
the  United  Stales;  an  iron  sign  on  West  Market 
indicates  that  fact.  For  this  reason  should  the 
state  refuse  to  donate  the  amount  required,  it  is 
felt  that  Congress  should  appropriate  the  required 
amount. 

The  state  will  be  asked  to  make  the  appropri- 
ation,  however,   without  much  doubt.      It  has  also 


An  Historic  Path 

been  suggested  that  the  historical  societies  of  the 
country  would  willingly  donate  a  sufficient  sum 
were  they  apprised  of  the  importance  of  the  route." 

"Col.  George  T.  Perkins  is  known  to  be  very 
much  in  favor  of  the  scheme,  especially  as  it  will 
give  added  interest  to  the  magnificent  park  that  he 
has  given  to  the  cit3^  As  the  path  passes  through 
the  park,  it  is  proper  that  it  especiall)'  be  desig- 
nated there,  and  this  much  of  the  work  will  be 
done  at  least." 

Surveyor  Gehres  has  been  making  some 
surveys,  already  along  the  path  so  far  as  it  relates 
to  Perkins  park,  and  it  was  this  action  that  started 
the  movement  to  mark  the  entire  path.'  " 

"Speaking  of  the  project  to  erect  monuments 
along  Portage  path,  Senator  Dick  said  before  his 
departure  for  Washington,  Wednesday:  'l  think 
the  scheme  is  a  good  one  and  believe  the  state 
ought  to  make  a  small  appropriation  for  the 
purpose." 

"it  is  understood  that  the  county  commission- 
ers promised  to  pay  half  of  the  expense  of  the 
surve3%  if  the  city  directors  of  public  safety  would 
pay  the  other  half.  The  latter  board,  however, 
felt  that,  under  the  present  financial  circumstances, 
they  could  not  well  afford  to  appropriate  mone^^ 
for  the  purpose.  Then  it  was  decided  to  ask  state 
aid  for  the  project." 

Like  many  other  popular  movements  where 
attempts    are    made    to    freeze    out    those  most  in- 

79 


An  Historic  Path 

tensely  interested  in  the  work,  this  movement 
ended  in  hot  air  and  smoke;  it  is  now  up  to  the 
Chamber  of  Commerce  to  take  it  in  hand  and  see 
what  it  can  do. 

The  affair  culminated  in  Mr.  G.  F.  Kasch, 
and  the  Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution 
taking  up  the  work  and  erecting  an  Indian  statue 
on  Portage  Path  at  West  Market  Street.  The 
result  of  their  labors  is  given  in  the  next  chapter. 


80 


I 


y 


Stjilii.'   to   Mark   Porlnjio   I'ntli   ^\■.■sl  .Nrarket 
Strc«'t,  Akron,  Ohio. 
Coiir«€sv    €.f    <i.    |-.    I<„>,  ll 


Statue    to    Mark  Portage   Path    Dedicated 
Tuesday  Afternoon,  July  4,  1905 


Services  were  Lmpressive  and 
Largely  Attended 


Under  the  above  caption  the  Akron  ^^ Daily 
Beacon-Journar'  of  July  5,  1905,  published  the 
following,  which  b_v  permission  we  copy. 

"With  services  that  were  impressive  the  hand- 
some statue,  presented  to  the  citybyGus  F,  Kasch, 
to  perpetuate  the  memor}'  of  the  trail  used  b}^  In- 
ians  in  making  the  "big  portage"  in  their  trips  from 
the  waters  of  the  north  to  those  of  the  south,  was 
unveiled  and  dedicated  Tuesday.  The  exercises 
were  in  charge  of  the  Daughters  of  the  American 
Revolution.  This  mark,  the  first  of  its  kind  to 
be  erected  in  Summit  county,  will  be  followed  by 
several  other  similar  shafts  to  be  placed  in  various 
parts  of  the  count}'  to  keep  fresh  in  the  minds  of 
the  people  of  the  present  and  future  generations 
the  more  important  phases  connected  with  the 
building  up  of  Summit  count}'." 

"Ex-Mayor  W.  B.  Doyle  was  chairman  of 
the  day  and  seated  beside  him  on  the  platform 
were  veterans  of  the   civil   war,    descendants  of  the 


Statue  Dedicated 

men  who  fought  in  the  Revolutionary  war,  and 
other  distinguished  persons  representing  almost 
ever^^  walk  in  life." 

"Soon  after  the  dedicatory  services  started, 
Mrs.  A.  E.  Heintselman,  Regent  of  Portage  Chap- 
ter, Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution,  was 
introduced  b3'  Mr.  Doyle  and  after  delivering  a 
brief  sketch  of  the  Portage  Path  the  white  covering 
was  drawn  from  the  statue  amid  the  cheers  of  the 
entire  crowd." 

"Following  the  unveiling  of  the  statue.  Mayor 
Kempel  in  a  short  speech  bespoke  the  appreciation 
of  the  citizens  of  Akron  and  in  their  behalf  accept- 
ed the  gift.  'It  is  with  more  than  passing  interest 
that  we  are  gathered  here  today  to  mark  the  loca- 
tion of  the  path  used  bj^  the  aborigine  in  his  long 
overland  travels,'  said  Mayor  Kempel.  'This 
path,  the  place  where  we  now  stand,  was  the  con- 
necting link  between  the  waters  of  the  Gulf  of  St. 
Lawrence  and  the  waters  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
and  in  accepting  this  gift  which  means  so  much  to 
the  people  of  Akron  and  of  Ohio,  I  have  to  thank 
the  generous  donor  Mr.  Gus  F.  Kaschwho  in  mak- 
ing this  presentation  is  happy  in  the  idea  that  he 
is  commemorating  what  he  considers  and  what  is 
an  important  part  of  the  earl)'  history  of  Ohio.' 

'It  might  be  well  at  this  time  to  look  back 
and  see  what  the  unveiling  of  this  statue  recalls. 
Before  the  visionary  Columbus  had  realized  the 
ambition  of  his  life  this  path  was    the    main  artery 

82 


Statue  Dedicated 

between  the  North  and  South.  Along  its  length 
the  Indian  carried  the  simple  belongings  used  in 
the  commerce  of  that  day.  To  the  red  man  who 
preceded  us,  Portage  Path  was  as  important  a  fac- 
tor in  the  life  of  those  daj'^s  as  are  our  railroads  to- 
da3'.  Portage  Path  is  the  dividing  line  between 
the  long  ago  and  toda3^  and  it  is  with  great  pleas- 
ure and  honor  that  I  accept  this  statue  in  behalf  of 
the  citizens  of  Akron.'  " 

"Ma3'or  Kempel  was  followed  b}'  T.  C.  Rey- 
nolds who  was  appointed  by  Gov.  Herrick  to  rep- 
resent the  state  at  this  dedication  and  who,  after 
a  brief  historical  sketch  of  the  Portage  Path,  ac- 
cepted the  statue  in  behalf  of  the  Governor  and  the 
State.  Senator  Chas.  Dick  also  spoke  at  some 
length,  as  well  as  others.  Gus  Kasch,  the  giver  of 
this  work  of  art,  spoke  a  few  Avords  thanking  the 
people  for  the  aid  they  had  given  him  in  the  dedi- 
cation. 

About  lOo  feet  from  the  Indian  statue  an  old 
school  house  once  stood,  in  which  S.  A.  Lane  was 
once  a  teacher.  This  was  in  the  years  1835 — 6. 
But  few  of  the  present  generation  remember  the 
historic  old  building,  but  about  a  dozen  of  the  old- 
est residents  of  the  county  saj'  that  the}''  remember 
the  edifice  well.  It  was  built  of  rough  hewn  logs 
and  stood  on  the  spot  many  years.  It  was  torn 
down  over  50  years  ago. 

We  understand  that  the  "Daughters  of  the 
American  Revolution",  have  appointed  a  committee 

83 


Statue  Dedicated 

to  put  up  another  momument  to  mark  Portage 
Path  this  coming  summer,  1911.  The  interest  these 
ladies'have  manifested  in  historical  matters  is  to  be 
heartily  commended,  and  far  exceeds  that  of  their 
"lords  and  masters".  This  is  largely  due  to  the 
fact  that  the  purest  blood  of  Revolutionary  sires 
courses  through  their  viens,  making  of  them  the 
best  ladies,  as  well  as  the  most  patriotic  body  in 
the  city. 

In  absence  of  Mrs.  Chas.  Knight  from  the  cit}^ 
we  are  unable  to  obtain  further  particulars,  but 
understand  that  the  monument  in  question  is  to  be 
a  huge  boulder,  with  a  proper  marker  to  match;  so 
Mrs.  E.  C.  Allen  informs  us,  and  this  in  turn  is 
verified  by  Mrs.  Mayor  Sawyer. 

All  honor  to  the  ladies,  the  Daughters  of  the 
American  Revolution! 

The  writer  has  been  endeavorimg  to  raise 
funds  to  erect  at  the  southern  terminus  of  Portage 
Path,  a  life-sized,  bronze  statue  of  an  Indian 
entitled:     "Watching  for  the  Coming  White  Man." 


84 


T.i([l<-   Miiry   C".;imi)bt>II,  the    First   White 
Keniale  on   Path 


The   Story  of   Mary   Campbell,  the    First 
White  Female  on  the  Portage  Path. 


Among  the  prisoners  delivered  to  Col.  Bou- 
quet at  his  headquarters  on  the  Tuscarawas  river- 
in  the  fall  of  1764,  were  a  Mrs.  Stuart  and  her 
companion,  little  12  }'ear  old  Mary  Campbell. 

These,  so  far  as  is  known,  were  the  only 
white  prisoners  held  by  the  Indians  in  the  territor}' 
now  included  in  Summit  count3\ 

The  storj^  of  these  lonely  waifs  so  far  from 
people  of  their  own  color  is  but  one  of  many  in  the 
annals  of  the  border  warfare  of  that  day.  The 
great  number  of  white  prisoners  held  at  that  time 
b\'  the  Indians  can  best  be  estimated  b}^  the 
number  delivered  to  Bouquet  but  25  miles  be- 
low the  south  line  of  the  Western  Reserve.  The 
records  show  that  he  received  49  males,  and 
64  females  belonging  to  Pennsylvania,  with  32 
males  and  58  females  belonging  to  Virginia,  a  total 
of  206;  plus  150  more  afterward  delivered  at  Fort 
Pitt,  making  a  total  of  356  captives  held  in  but  a 
small  portion  of  the  state. 

In  the  fall  of  1759,  shortl}'  after  the  signing 
of  the    Crogan    treaty  of  that    year,  the    Delaware 


Story  of  Mary  Campbell 

Chieftain  and  King  of  the  Wolf  clans,  Netawat- 
wees,  and  his  warriors,  after  a  prolonged  pow-wow 
in  their  village  near  Kittanning,  struck  the  painted 
post  and  in  all  the  rude  panoply  of  war-paint  and 
feathers,  marched  forth  against  the  scattered  white 
settlements  on  the  Susquehanna.  Among  the  out- 
l3'ing  lonely  hamlets  in  this  beautiful  valle}'  was 
an  isolated  cab'in  occupied  jointly  by  two  families; 
one  by  the  name  of  Campbell  consisting  of  the 
father  and  daughter  Mary,  the  other  consisting  of 
Mr.  Stuart,  his  wife  and  four  children.  For  some 
time  nothing  had  arisen  to  alarm  the  lonel}''  set- 
tlers, and  in  the  morning  in  question,  the  two  men 
after  eating  their  breakfast,  departed  to  their  labor, 
not  knowing  that  every  motion  was  shadowed  by  a 
savage  and  relentless  foe. 

After  the  morning's  work  was  finished  Mrs. 
Stuart  who  had  an  errand  at  their  nearest  neigh- 
bors, several  miles  distant,  left  her  children  in  the 
care  of  little  Mary  Campbell  and  departed  on  her 
journey'.  Some  time  after  the  woman's  departure 
the  Indians,  much  to  the  alarm  of  the  children, 
took  possession  of  the  cabin,  waiting  for  the  re- 
turn of  some  of  the  adults.  Little  Mary,  although 
too  young  to  understand  the  full  import  of  the  pro- 
ceeding, was  ver}'  much  frightened  and  kept  the 
huddled  children  near  her  in  one  corner  of  the  room. 
While  waiting,  the  Indians  ransacked  the  house 
and  made  up  their  bags  of  plunder. 

Upon    the    return    of    Mrs.    Stuart    from    her 

86 


Story  of  Mary  Campbell 

neighbors  she  heard  the  screaming  of  her  frightened 
children  long  before  she  reached  the  cabin.  Start- 
ing on  a  run  she  was  horrified  upon  opening  the 
dour  to  find  the  room  filled  with  savages.  She  was 
instantly  made  a  prisoner,  and  hurried  prepara- 
tions were  immediatel}'  begun  for  departure.  The 
younger  children  were  divided  among  their  captors 
who  made  off  with  them  and  their  plunder  on  their 
backs;  Mrs.  Stuart  carr3ang  the  infant  which  was 
fretful  and  hard  to  be  kept  quiet.  The  savages 
convinced  that  it  retarded  their  flight,  in  spite  of 
the  woman's  intreaties,  took  it  from  her  arms,  and 
in  the  presence  of  the  shrieking  mother,  dashed  its 
brains  out  against  a  tree  and  threw  its  yet  quiver- 
ing bod}^  into  the  bushes  besides  the  path  and  in- 
creased their  speed,  urging  their  tired,  alarmed 
and  grief-stricken  captives  to  their  best  pace. 
Among  the  prisoners  was  Sammy  Stuart,  a  little 
7  year  old  boj',  who  found  it  difficult  to  keep  up 
with  the  others,  and  was  frequently  carried  on  the 
back  of  the  Indian  to  whom  he  was  assigned.  On 
the  third  day  out  from  the  cabin,  the  savage  who 
was  carrying  little  Sammy  dropped  behind  the 
others  but  soon  reappeared  alone,  with  a  fresh 
scalp  hanging  at  his  belt  which  the  frantic  mother 
recognized  as  that  of  her  little  son.  There  was  no 
time  for  grief,  as  the  savages  were  continually  nag- 
ging their  captives  to  a  greater  speed  by  frequent 
use  of  blows  and  threats. 


87 


Story  of  Mary  Campbell 

Arriving  at  the  Indian  village  the  famil}-  was 
separated.  All  of  the  children,  except  Mary  were 
taken  to  other  villages,  and  upon  the  expulsion  of 
the  Delawares  from  Penns3'lvania  valley's  in  1759- 
60,  Netawatwees  and  his  tribe,  with  Mrs.  Stuart 
and  Mary  Campbell,  moved  to  the  Cuyahoga  val- 
ley, settling  at  the  Big  Falls  of  the  Cuyahoga, 
Hopocan,  as  the  Indians  called  it.  Mar}^  Camp- 
bell's first  home  in  the  "Ohio  countr}',"  was  in 
the  "Old  Maid's  Kitchen,"  where  the  squaws  and 
pappooses  were  temporaril}^  domiciled,  until  the 
village  could  be  built.  This  spot,  for  a  time  long 
unknown  had  been  the  site  of  an  Indian  village. 
Previous  to  1650,  the  Eries,  that  little  known  and 
very  mysterious  race,  had  a  village  here.  After 
their  massacre  and  dispersion  as  a  race  b}'  the 
combined  Five  Nations,  the  Iroquois  built  a  vil- 
lage on  the  south  side  of  the  river;  a  little  later, 
Netawatwees  erected  his  village  on  the  north  bank. 
As  far  back  as  is  known,  the  plain  of  North  Hill 
was  without  signs  of  ancient  forest  growth.  The 
entire  plain,  as  well  as  certain  points  of  the  Cuy- 
ahoga valle}',  was  used  by  the  Indians  as  corn 
fields. 

When  first  seen  by  the  whites  the  North  Hill 
was  a  green  oasis  of  a  waist-high,  waving  mass  of 
variegated  wild  flowers,  beautiful  beyond  compar- 
ison, hemmed  in  and  around  b}'  gigantic  trees  of 
an  ancient  forest  growth.  It  was  here  that  little 
Mary  Campbell  hoed  corn   72    j'ears   before  Akron 

88 


Story  of  Mary  Campbell 

became  a  village.  She  had  been  adopted  by  the 
King  of  all  the  Delaware  tribes  in  the  "Ohio 
countr}',"  and  was  kindly  treated.  She  spent 
much  of  her  time  at  the  northern  terminus  of 
"Portage  Path,"  fishing,  nutting,  and  gathering 
berries,  and  as  far  as  is  known  was  the  hrst  white 
female  ever  on  or  near  the  historic  path. 

Not  onl_v  this,  but  as  far  as  is  known,  Mrs. 
Stuart  and  Mar}'  Campbell  were  the  first  female 
captives  within  the  limits  of  the  Western  Reserve. 

During  the  winter  of  1755,  Col.  James  Smith 
was  held  a  captive  at  the  Falls  of  Elyria.  In  mak- 
ing his  escape  he  made  his  way  through  Medina 
Count}'  and]  presumably  along  the  Central  San- 
dusky and  Fort  Pitt  Indian  Trail,  crossing  the 
northern  part  of  Portage  Path  at  Old  Portage. 

John  Brickell,  who  was  taken  captive  by  the 
Indians  in  Pennsylvania,  in  1791,  also,  undoubt- 
edly, came  over  Portage  Path,  on  his  way  to  the 
Delaware  Indian  Tuscarawas  towns,  in  charge  of 
Simon  Girty.  Mr.  Brickell  afterwards  built  and 
owned  a  residence  directlv  opposite  where  the 
Ohio  Penitentiary  now  stands. 

The  year  that  first  saw  Mrs.  Stuart  and  Marj' 
Campbell  prisoners  also  brought  that  great  histor- 
ical figure,  Pontiac,  prominently  before  the  Amer- 
ican people.  His  camp,  further  down  the  Cuya- 
hoga, was  known  to  the  borderers  as  "Ponty's 
Camp,"  and  became  a  great  historical  landmark. 
Major    Rogers   with    200  British   soldiers  were    at 

89 


Story  of  Mary  Campbell 

that  time  camped  on  the  Cu3'ahoga. 

In  1764,  Mary  Campbell  was  turned  over  to 
Gen.  Bouquet,  on  the  Tuscarawas,  and  was  re- 
turned to  her  Pennsylvania  home  where  she  was 
afterwards  married  to  Joseph  Wilford,  in  the  j^ear 
1771.  She  afterwards  resided  in  Cumberland 
county,  Pennsylvania,  where  she  raised  a  large 
family  of  children.  Her  son  became  one  of  the 
earliest  pioneers  of  Stark  county,  and  his  son,  her 
grandchild,  afterwards  became  a  member  of  the 
Ohio  Legislature,  from  Wayne  county.  He  was 
named  after  his  grandfather,  Joseph  Wilford. 


90 


The  Building  of  Pcrr3"'s  Vessels,  1812 


These  three  vessels  were  built  at  the  northern 
end  of  Portage  Path,  at  Old  Portage,  by  the 
United  States,  thus  making  this  point  the  first 
navy  yard  in  Ohio. 

In  the  month  of  January,  1813,  the  Navy 
Department  of  the  United  States  found  it  necessary 
to  build  three  small  vessels  to  be  used  as  gun- 
boats on  Lake  Erie.  It  was  discovered  by  Capt. 
Perry  that  small  vessels,  being  more  easily  and 
rapidly  worked,  could  do  effective  service  in  a  close 
contest. 

The  contract  for  building  the  boats  was 
awarded  to  Brimel  Robins,  of  Alleghanj^  count}', 
Pa.  He  selected  Old  Portage,  on  the  Cu^-ahoga 
river,  as  the  place  to  build  them.  The  timber  and 
lumber  was  furnished  by  Captains  Rice  and 
Stowe,  and  was  sawed  in  the  mill  of  Francis  and 
Zenas  Kelse}'  at  "Old  Cuyahoga  village."  Stew- 
art Ga^'lord  superintended  the  boat  3'ard.  In 
June  the  three  gunboats  were  launched  and  named 
"Trippe",  "Tigress"  and  "Portage."  The  latter 
boat  was  afterwards  re-named  "The  Porcupine," 
from  the  fact  that  one  of  the  men  emploj^ed  in  their 
building  and  in    floating    them  down  to  Cleveland, 

91 


Perry's  Vessels 

killed  a  porcupine  and  threw  it  on  the  deck  of  the 
"Portage."  This  animal  was  unknown  to  many 
of  the  men,  who  viewed  it  with  great  curiosity, 
and  then,  and  there,  re-named  their  boat  "The 
Porcupine."  Wm,  Coggswell,  the  pioneer  of. 
Granger  township,  was  the  young  man.  Of  this 
trip  he  said:  "l  was  employed  with  others  to 
float  them  down  to  the  Lake,  with  instructions 
that  when  we  got  to  the  "Piner}^"  (near 
Peninsula)  we  should  furnish  each  boat  with  masts 
and  spars.  At  the  "Pinery"  we  were  detained 
several  da3's  in  procuring  the  necessary  rigging 
for  the  boats.  At  that  place  I  killed  a  porcupine 
which  was  looked  upon  as  an  animal  of  great 
curiosity  by  our  small  crew.  When  we  got  to 
Cleveland,  the  gunboats  were  examined  by  many, 
and  the  general  opinion  was  that  they  were  the 
kind  needed." 

Cleveland  at  that  time  was  but  a  small  village 
of  less  than  175  inhabitants. 

These  boats  at  once  went  into  commission 
and  did  good  service  during  the  battle  of  Lake 
Erie,  Good  old  Summit  oak,  built  in  Summit 
county,  helped  to  whip  the  British. 

In  the  first  line  of  battle  these  boats  were  on 
the  extreme  right.  In  the  second  battle  position, 
these  boats  had  forged  ahead  to  the  center;  the 
Trippe  occupying  the  most  advanced  position  of 
any  of  Perry's  fleet. 


92 


TIk-    H.c-nnii.cJ   >S   r<)il:i.<-    Vr'h.   \V'.-sl 
]<iv<-r  iiimI    Ciiiiiil.      Nu'lli    l';iul 


Perry's  Vessels 

At  the  close  of  the  battle,  the  "Porcupine" 
had  traversed  the  whole  line  of  battle  and  was 
found  on  the  extreme  left,  opposing  the  British 
"Lady  Prevost."  "The  Tigress"  was  near  the 
center  confronting  the  British  "Little  Belt."  "The 
Trippe"  was  well  advanced  beyond  the  outer  lines 
in  pursuit  of  the  British  vessels  "Hunter"  and 
"Chippewa."  Besides  these  two  vessels,  Capt 
Holdup,  assisted  by  the  "Scorpion,"  chased 
"Little  Belt"  and  her  consort  "Chippewa",  which 
had  turned  tail  and  were  running  away,  and 
captured  them,  the  "Trippe"  bringing  in  the 
"Chippewa"  unaided. 

While  these  vessels  were  building  at  "Old 
Portage"  and  during  the  time  Gen.  Wadsworth's 
army  of  occupation  lay  at  this  point,  it  was  a  very 
busy  place;  as  many  as  one  hundred  teams  loaded 
and  unloaded  here  each  day.  All  the  supplies 
used  by  Gen.  Perkins  at  Camp  Avery,  and  by  Gen. 
Meigs  at  Fort  Meigs,  were  boated  here  from 
Cleveland,  and  shipped  overland  over  the  new 
military  road  cut  through  to  the  Huron  river. 

The  first  saloon  in  Summit  county  was  located 
on  the  Portage  Path  at  this  place.  It  was  con- 
ducted by  a  Frenchman  with  an  Indian  wife.  He 
also  ran  a  trading  post,  and  the  majority  of  his 
custom  was  among  the  Indians,  whom  he  got  full 
and  then  watered  his  whiskey.  When  they  had 
drunk  themselves    sober  the_v   would  say  "Indian 


93 


Perry's  Vessels 

get  too  much  Cuj^ahog — ugh!"  Then  he  would 
have  to  reverse  the  dose  and  give  them  more 
whiskey  and  less  water. 


94 


New  Portage  as  An  Early  River  Port. 


Thomas  Jefferson  in  his  "Notes  of  the  State 
of  Virginia"  written  in  1781,  says: —  The  "Mus- 
kingum is  280  yards  wide  at  its  mouth,  and  200 
j'^ards  at  the  lower  Indian  towns,  150  miles  up- 
wards. It  navigable  for  small  batteaux  to  withiti 
one  mile  of  a  fiavi£-al>Ie  fart  of  CiiyaJio^a  river 
which  runs  tnto  Lake  Erie."  The  commencement 
of  the  portage  on  the  Cuyahoga,  was  called  "Old 
Portage." 

In  the  "Ordinance  of  Freedom,"  or  the  Ordi- 
nance of  1787,  the  Congress  of  the  United  States 
said,  "The  navigable  waters  leading  into  the 
Mississippi  and  St.  Lawrence,  and  the  carrying 
places  between  the  same,  shall  be  common  high- 
ways, and  forever  free,  as  well  to  the  inhabitants 
of  the  said  territory  as  to  the  citizens  of  the  United 
States." 

Capt.  Thomas  Hutchins,  in  a  publication 
published  in  London,  in  1788,  mentions  among 
the  "carrying  places  between  the  Ohio  and  Lake 
Erie,  "From  Muskingum  to  Cayahoga,  is  the 
best  portage  between  the  Ohio  and  Lake  Erie." 

95 


Early  River  Port 

Evan's  map,  published  in  1755,  gives  the 
"Caj'ahoga"  river,  the  "Portage,"  and  a  stream 
designed  for  the  Tuscarawas. 

The  Indians  had  used  this  "Portage,"  and 
these  rivers  as,  a  highwa}'  for  many  years.  This 
was  the  treaty  line  made  with  Indians  at  Fort  Mc- 
intosh in  1785,  also  confirmed  at  a  later  date  at 
the  treat}"  of  Greenville.  It  was  thus  made  the 
western  boundar}^  between  the  United  States  and 
the  Indian  nations. 

Tallmadge  Mills,  or  Middlebury  as  it  was 
afterward  called,  now  "East  Akron,"  or  "Sixth 
Ward,"  was  the  only  trading  place  for  man}"  miles 
around  the  "Portage."  Goods  for  this  place  were 
shipped  there  in  the  early  days  b\"  the  way  of  the 
Cuyahoga  to  "Old  Portage,"  or  b}'  the  Avay  of  the 
Muskingum  and  Tuscarawas  to  "New  Portage." 
and  from  thence  to  Middlebury  by  teams.  "These 
boats  were  long,  narrow  vessels,  frequently  "dug- 
outs" as  the.y  were  called.  They  were  from  twenty 
to  forty  feet  long,  and  from  three  to  five  feet  and 
were  propelled  by  poles  while  going  against  the 
current.  Their  capacity  was  from  ten  to  twelve 
barrels  of  pork,  salt,  flour  or  whisk5\  Salt  sold  in 
those  days  for  twenty  dollars  per  barrel,  while  a 
barrel  of  whisky  could  be  bought  for  about  five  dol- 
lars,  or  even  less,  if  the  barrels  were  returned. 

In  1819,  William  W.  Laird  built  himself  a 
cabin  on  the  banks  of  the  Tuscarawas  at  "New 
Portage,"  and  began  the  construction  of  flat-boats, 

96 


Early  River  Port 

to  run  on  the  river.  These  boats  were  loaded 
with  all  kinds  of  produce  and  consigned  to  New 
Orleans,  without  breaking  bulk.  They  passed 
down  the  Tuscarawas  into  the  Muskingum,  thence 
into  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi,  and  after  a  journey 
of  some  two  months  reached  their  destination. 

Henry  Chittenden,  of  Springfield,  Abram 
Norton  of  Middlebury,  and  Philander  Adams,  of 
Tallmadge  afterwards  became  contractors  and 
speculators  in  the  produce  of  the  country,  which 
they  bought  of  the  farmers  all  over  the  country 
and  hauled  to  "New  Portage"  and  shipped  on 
Laird's  boats  to  New  Orleans.  This  seems  almost 
incredible  to  those  who  know  the  insignificant  size 
of  the  river  at  this  point.  But  such  was  the  case, 
as  we  learn  from  old  people,  who  still  remember 
this  river  as  a  turbulent  stream,  which,  at  certain 
seasons,  was  impossible  to  ford,  and  which  at  all 
times  was  a  goodly  stream.  After  the  canal  was 
cut  through,  the  river  dwindled  to  its  present  size. 
Now,  however,  have  "the  mighty  fallen,"  and  the 
school-bo3'S  wade  across  its  bed,  or  catch  the  min- 
ows  which  sport  in  its  shallow  waters. 

This  is  the  history  of  the  starting  and  the  open- 
ing of  "New  Portage"  as  a  Port.  To-day,  even 
New  Portage  is  gone,  and  will  soon  not  be  known 
under  that  name  as  it  has  now  moved  westward 
and  taken  on  town  airs  and  has  become  part  of  the 
corporation    of    Barberton. 


97 


Why  the  Lands  West  of  Portage  Path  Did 

Not  Become  Part  of  the  United 

States  Until  1805 


Sir  Wm.  Johnson's  steal  of  40,000  acres  of 
Indian  lands  was  bolstered  up  b}'  the  treaty  of 
Fort  Stanwix,  November,  1768,  The  importance 
of  this  and  its  material  benefit  to  Ohio  history  has 
been  much  overlooked  by  national  and  state  his- 
torians. The  line  thus  fixed  by  the  Six  Nations, 
as  far  as  our  state  was  concerned,  was  the  last 
treaty  made  by  the  English. 

The  absurdity  of  some  treaties  made  by  Great 
Britain  is  shown  by  the  treaty  at  Albany,  July  19, 
1701,  between  Sir  Wm.  Johnson  and  the  Five 
Nations.  We  give  an  extract,  spelling,  capitali- 
zation and  all: 

"A  tract  of  land  lyeing  between  the  great  lake 
Ottowawa  (Huron)  and  the  lake  called  by  the  na- 
tives Sahiquage,  and  by  the  Christians  Swege 
(Erie)  and  runnstill  it  butts  upon  the  Twichtwichs 
and  is  bounded  on  the  right  hand  by  a  place  called, 
Quadoge  (head  of  Lake  Michigan,  Chicago)  conte- 
gning  in  length  about  800  miles  and  in  bredth  400 
miles  including  the  country  where  the  beavers,  the 

98 


Part  of  the  United  States 

deers,  and  elks  keep  (Ohio.)"  This  shows  that 
poor  Lo  was  not  above  deeding  land  that  did  not 
belong  to  him.  This  created  such  a  furore  among 
the  western  tribes  that  England  was  glad  to  let 
the  matter  drop.  This  was  no  more  a  treat}^  than 
was  Lord  Dunmore's  so-called  treat}'  in  November, 
1774,  at  Camp  Charlotte,  O.  Before  a  treaty 
could  be  made  he  had  burned  Norfolk  Va.,  with 
all  its  militar}^  stores  and  shipping,  and  was  on  his 
way  across  the  ocean  to  his  royal  master. 

Connecticut  surrendered  her  claim  to  all  Ohio 
territory  south  of  the  41st  degree  of  latitude,  and 
west  of  a  line  120  miles  from  the  west  line  of  Penn- 
sylvania, in  the  month  of  September,  1786.  In 
January,  1785,  the  treat}^  of  Fort  Mcintosh  made 
the  western  boundary  line  of  the  United  States, 
which  the  Fort  Stanwix  treat}'  had  fixed,  move 
westward  to  the  Cuyahoga  and  Tuscarawas  rivers 
and  the  Portage  Path.  Congress  was  under  the 
delusion  that  it  had  acquired  the  Indian  title  and 
full  dominion  of  all  the  lands  between  this  line  and 
the  Ohio  river.  This  was  the  occasion  of  a  re- 
monstrance sent  Congress  by  the  Council  of  the 
confederate  Indian  Tribes  of  Ohio,  from  their  seat 
of  power,  near  Toledo,  a  section  of  which  reads  as 
follows: 

"in  their  opinion  the  first  step  should  be  that 
all  treaties  on  their  part,  carried  on  with  the  United 
States,  should  be  with  the  general  voice  of  the 
whole  confederacy,  and  in  the  most  open    manner, 

99 


Part  of  the  United  States 

without  any  restraint  on  either  side;  and  as  land 
matters  are  often  the  subject  of  our  councils  with 
you,  and  a  matter  of  the  greatest  importance  of 
general  concern  to  us,  in  this  case  we  hold  it  in- 
dispensably necessary  that  any  cession  of  our  lands 
should  be  made  in  the  most  public  manner,  and 
by  the  united  voice  of  the  confederac}':  holding  all 
partial  treaties  as  void  and  of  no  effect." 

We  think  the  mischief  and  confusion  which 
has  followed  is  owing  to  your  having  managed 
everything  respecting  us  in  your  own  way.  You 
kindled  your  council  fires  where  3'ou  thought  prop- 
er, without  consulting  us,  at  which  you  held  sep- 
arate treaties,  and  have  entirely  neglected  our  plan 
of  having  a  general  conference  with  the  different 
nations  of  the  confederac5\  Had  this  happened, 
we  have  reason  to  believe  everything  would  have 
been  settled  between  us  in  a  most  friendl}'  manner. 
We  wish,  therefore,  you  would  take  it  into  serious 
consideration  and  let  us  speak  to  you  in  the  man- 
ner we  proposed.  Let  us  have  a  treat}'  with  3'ou 
early  in  the  spring.  We  say  let  us  meet  half-wa}', 
and  let  us  pursue  such  steps  as  become  upright 
and  honest  men.  We  beg  that  3'ou  will  prevent 
your  surveyors  and  other  people  from  coming  on 
our  side  of  the  Ohio  river." 

Words  of  truth  and  wisdom!  And  yet  Con- 
gress was  mute.  The  people  of  a  great  nation,  of 
a  Christian  land,  wished  to  deal  with  these  people 
by  force  and  fraud  and  chicanery.        An  open,  hon- 


A  Portage   Fsilh   liiiliaii,  Ootinutx.     Indijiii 
(^liicf  unci   C'atliolio  PrioMt 


Part  of  tlie  United  States 

est  wa3'-  was  to  be  avoided  on  the  principle  that 
one  stick  was  more  easily  broken  than  a  bundle  of 
them;  in  union  there  was  strength.  Indeed  Gen- 
eral St.  Clair  admitted  this  when  writing  to  the 
President  of  the  United  States;  he  says:  "The 
reason  why  the  treat}^  (Fort  Harmar)  was  made 
separately  was  a  jealous}^  between  them,  which  I 
was  not  willing  to  lessen  by  appearing  to  consider 
them  as  one  people." 

Such  were  the  tactics  used  b}^  our  forefathers 
to  cheat  Lo  out  of  his  inheritance. 

A  year  after  the  Fort  Mcintosh  treaty,  or  in 
Januar}^  1786,  the  treaty  of  Fort  Finney  indorsed 
the  Cu3'ahoga  Portage  Path  line.  So  did  the 
treat}'  of  Fort  Harmar  of  January,  1789.  In  ad- 
dition to  this,  the  line  was  endorsed  by  two  treaties 
not  known  in  history.  The  first  was  between  50 
Indian  chiefs  and  Moses  Cleveland  in  June,  1796, 
in  Buffalo,  N,  Y.  The  second  was  at  Conneaut, 
Ohio,  in  July,  1796,  between  the  same  agent  of 
the  Connecticut  Land  Company  and  Indians  of 
Ohio.  The  three  former  were  made  by  govern- 
ment officers  appointed  and  sanctioned  by  Con- 
gress and  afterwards  approved  by  same  authority. 

England  had  no  rights  to  any  territory  west  of 
the  Scioto,  and  very  doubtful  ones  to  any  west  of 
the  Ohio.  She  had  never  secured  such  rights  by 
either  conquest,  treaty  or  purchase;  so  said  Gener- 
al William  Henry  Harrison,  in  1839,  and  a  better 
authority    did    not    exist.     The  Hon.    Rufus  King 


Part  of  the  United  States 

said:  "England  had  not  planted  the  American  col- 
onies, and  had  no  proprietorship  or  right  in  the 
land  they  took.  They  were  the  work  of  men  who 
had  individually  or  b}'  companies  been  left  b}^  the 
English  government  to  find  territory  and  make  a 
country  for  themselves." 

During  the  war  of  the  Revolution  there  was  an- 
other war  west  of  the  Alleghenies,  not  sanctioned 
b}'  governmental  proclamation,  not  aided  b}'  gov- 
ernmental troops,  or  supplies,  or  arms,  or  treasure. 
An  isolated  people,  they  were  left  to  go  it  alone, 
and  "sink  or  swim,  survive  or  perish,"  as  the  case 
might  be,  and  yet,  there  was  mere  blood  spilled, 
more  lives  lost,  more  treasure  wasted  and  more 
suffering  endured  than  by  the  thirteen  colonies 
during  their  entire  eight  year's  struggle.  The 
"Ohio  country"  was  born  in  a  baptism  of  blood 
and  fire;  the  darkness  of  night  was  lighted  by  burn- 
ing homes,  and  shocked  by  the  shrieks  of  outraged 
womanhood,  the  screams  of  childish  despair,  the 
crack  of  the  rifle,  the  swish  of  fl^'ing  tomahawks, 
the  yell  of  defiance  and  the  moans  of  dj^ing  man- 
hood. 

The  proprietary  rights  in  this  land  belonged  to 
nobody  on  earth  except  the  Ohio  Indian  nations; 
theirs  were  the  primary  rights,  the_v  were  indige- 
nous to  the  soil;  France,  England  and  the  United 
States  could  form  no  national  boundary  lines  in 
this  land  without  the  consent  or  conquest  of  these 
"sons  of  the  soil."     The  only  earthly  rights  the 

1 02 


Part  of  the  United  States 

first  mentioned  countries  could  claim  were  political 
rights  and  these  were  of  very  equivocal  value. 
The  Hon.  J.  Fenimore  Cooper,  the  best  authority 
on  land  titles  ever  in  the  United  States,  says: 
"We  white  people  can  ver}'  well  understand  that  a 
humane  government,  which  professes,  on  the 
principles  recognized  by  civilized  nations,  to  have 
jurisdiction  over  certain  extensive  territories  that 
lie  in  the  virgin  forest,  and  which  are  used  only, 
and  that  occasionally,  by  certain  savage  tribes  as 
hunting  grounds,  should  deem  it  right  to  satisfy 
those  tribes  by  purchase  before  the)'  parceled  out 
their  lands  for  the  purpose  of  civilized  life;  but  it 
would  not  be  so  easy  to  make  an  unsophisticated 
mind  understand  that  there  could  be  two  owners  to 
the  same  property'. " 

The  anti-rent  war  of  New  York  proved  the 
greed  and  unscrupulousness  of  white  men  in  regard 
to  land  titles.  Because  a  man  had  paid  a  very 
nominal  rent  for  land  for  a  number  of  3'ears,  had 
improved  the  propert}',  it  was  claimed  by  the  anti- 
renters  that  the  owner  of  the  soil  had  no  rights  to 
the  land  which  he  had  bought  and  paid  for  after 
quieting  the  Indian  title,  except  such  rights  as 
they,  the  renters,  were  willing  to  concede. 

France  claimed  territory  west  of  the  Ohio 
river,  not  by  conquest  nor  by  purchase,  but  simply 
by  the  right  of  discovery;  yet  she  maintained 
armed  posts  in  spite  of  England  and  English  laws 
until  wrested  from  them  by  General  George  Rogers 

103 


Part  of  the  United  States 

Clark,  not  for  England,  not  for  the  United  States, 
but  for  the  struggling  pioneers  west  of  the  Alle- 
ghanies.  Although  France  had  ceded  her  paper 
rights  to  England  at  the  treaty  of  Paris  in  1763, 
3'et,  the  lilies  of  France  still  floated  over  her  armed 
posts  in  the  Illinois  country  and  St.  Louis  until 
1778,  and  at  Detroit  until  1780.  Although  Eng- 
land had  ceded  her  paper  rights  to  the  United 
States  at  the  treaty  of  Paris  in  1783,  yet  the  ro5'al 
standard  of  England  floated  over  armed  English 
posts  in  Ohio  until  the  war  of  1812.  So  much 
for    paper  rights. 

Col.  Chas.  Whittlesey,  late  president  of  the 
Northern  Ohio  and  Western  Reserve  Historical 
society,  has  stated:  "The  land  west  of  the 
Cuyahoga  and  Tuscarawas  rivers  and  Portage 
Path  was  held  in  1788  by  the  Indians  and  the 
British." 

Congress  of  the  United  States,  in  1787, 
affirmed  that  "the  utmost  good  faith  shall  always 
be  observed  towards  the  Indians;  their  lands  and 
property  shall  never  be  taken  from  them  without 
their  consent." 

In  1801  the  citizens  of  the  Western  Reserve, 
east  of  the  Cuyahoga,  petitioned  congress  to  be 
taken  into  the  United  States,  which  was  granted. 

England  inherited  the  paper  rights  of  France, 
and  in  her  last  treaty  with  the  North  American 
savages,  at  the  first  treaty  of  Fort  Stanwix,  in 
1768,   made  the  western    boundary   of  her  domain 

104 


Part  of  the  United  States 

the  Ohio  river.  In  1774,  six  years  later,  the 
English  Parliament  made  the  Ohio  river  her  south- 
western boundary;  nine  3'ears  later  she  ceded  her 
paper  rights  to  the  United  States,  whose  congress, 
four  years  later,  declared  that  the  Indians'  land 
should  never  be  taken  from  them  without  their 
consent. 

Indian  treaties  made  at  the  second  treaty  at 
Fort  Stanwix,  in  1784,  relinquished  onl}^  the 
claim  of  the  Six  Nations  to  the  Ohio  valley;  this 
was  followed  bj''  the  treaty  of  Fort  Mcintosh  in 
1785,  Fort  Finney  in  1786  and  Fort  Harmar  in 
1789,  the  treaties  at  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  and  Conneaut, 
Ohio,  in  1796,  which  relinquished  the  Indian  title 
to  all  lands  east  of  the  Cuyahoga,  which  were  paid 
for  three  separate  times.  These  treaties  were  ac- 
cepted and  confirmed  bj^  the  congress  of  the  United 
States,  which  made  it  felony  for  whites  to  settle 
on  land  west  of  the  Cuj'ahoga,  punishable  b}'  heavy 
penalties. 

The  consequence  of  this  was  that  the  lands 
west  of  Portage  Path  did  not  become  a  part  of  the 
United  States  until  after  the  treaty  of  Fort 
Industry,  in  1805,  bj'  the  terms  of  which  treaty 
the  Indians  were  paid  the  sum  of  $10,000;  $6,000 
in  coin  and  $4,000  in  merchandise.  Settlers, 
however,  were  not  allowed  to  purchase  land  until 
1807.  The  Connecticut  Land  Company  com- 
menced its  survey  of  its  lands  west  of  the 
Cuyahoga  in  1806,  but  did  not  finish  until  early  in 

105 


Part  of  the  United  States 

1807.  The  United  States,  not  satisfied  with  its 
survey  of  the  41st  meridian  of  north  latitude,  re- 
surveyed  that  parallel  as  well  as  the  western  line 
of  the  Western  Reserve  and  that  of  the  Con- 
necticut Fire  lands.  This  was  completed  in  1807 
and  settlers  admitted. 


106 


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